stated that "I announced last week that I would submit myself for public confidence. ... Although it is not a matter that I can determine, I think a national referendum is a correct way to do this. Although there are disputes as to legal issues, I think it is feasible even under the current law by interpreting the 'matters concerning national security' more broadly, should there be a political agreement," thereby suggesting a confidence vote to be instituted in December of 2003. Debates concerning the constitutional permissibility of a confidence vote were thereby caused. Finally, such debates upon the constitutionality of a confidence referendum reached the Constitutional Court through a constitutional petition, but the Constitutional Court, in its majority opinion of five Justices in 2003Hun-Ma694 (issued on November 27, 2003), dismissed such constitutional petition on the ground that the 'act of the President that is the subject matter of the case was not an act accompanying legal effect but an expression of a mere political plan, therefore did not constitute an exercise of governmental power.' (B) Article 72 of the Constitution vests in the President the authority to institute national referendum by providing that the "President may submit important policies relating to diplomacy, national defense, unification and other matters relating to the national destiny to a national referendum if he or she deems it necessary. Article 72 of the Constitution connotes a danger that the President might use national referendum as a political weapon and politically abuse such device by employing it to further legitimize his or her policy and to strengthen his or her political position beyond as a mere means to confirm the will of the public toward a specific policy, as the President monopolizes the discretionary authority to institute national referendum including the authority to decide whether to institute a national referendum, its timing, and the specific agendas to be voted on and the questions to be asked at the referendum, under Article 72 of the Constitution. Thus, Article 72 of the Constitution vesting within the President the authority to institute a national referendum should be strictly and narrowly interpreted in order to prevent the political abuse of national referendum by the President. (C) From this standpoint, the 'important policy matters' that can be subjected to a national referendum under Article 72 of the Constitution do not include the 'trust of the public' in the President. An election is for the 'decision on persons,' that is, an election is to determine the representatives of the public as a premise to make representative democracy possible. By contrast, the national referendum is a means to realize direct democracy, and its object or subject matter is the 'decision on issues,' that is, specific state policies or legislative bills. Therefore, by the own nature of the national re- - 187 -