Raising Suspicion over Real Estate Sepeculation by President Brother

The Seoul District Public Prosecutors` Office in charge of public order May 21 summoned a lawmaker of the opposition Grand National Party Kim Moon-soo regarding his allegation made before the presidential election in December last year. The opposition party lawmaker alleged that then presidential candidate of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party Roh Moo-hyun and his brother Roh Gun-pyeong were involved in real estate speculation.

An official at the Seoul prosecution said, “Our investigation found it true that the President`s brother owns the estate in question. Now, we are investigating whether the lawmaker`s allegation constitutes a smear campaign against the candidate of the rival party.”

The prosecution said that, at the beginning of this month, they summoned three to four public officials from the Geoje city hall as part of an investigation into the allegation of the brother`s involvement in real estate speculation.

The Seoul prosecutors` office made it clear that they don`t have to investigate into the allegation in regard of Kim`s volition of election laws, but they has to investigate whether the allegation is tantamount to a slander against the President because the allegation was not made by the President`s relatives, even though the MDP dropped its lawsuit against GNP Rep. Kim, accusing him for violating the election laws and slandering the MDP presidential candidate.

GNP lawmaker Kim alleged, “Apart from this case, there are suspicions that President Roh`s relatives and close aides accumulated assets through real estate speculation. Therefore, the prosecution should launch a full-fledged investigation to clear up all those suspicions.”

In December 4 last year, the opposition lawmaker held a press conference and claimed, “Roh Gun-pyeong once owned a two-story café and two sets of villas in Geoje National Park. And he inflicted damage to the national park during the construction of three buildings in the area.”

President Roh`s brother Kim Gun-pyeong is now considering filing a libel lawsuit against the opposition lawmaker Kim.

Sang-Rok Lee myzodan@donga.com manman@donga.com