It Is a Typical Tactic to Say, “I Don’t Know”

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and the new Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) called for President Roh Moo-hyun to come clean regarding illegal presidential campaign funds and for the prosecution to tighten the investigation, following the Uri Party Rep. Lee Sang-soo’s testimony that he had informed Roh of detailed information about companies which had furnished the funds right before the election in 2002.

“Now that a chief manager of Roh’s camp, who played the role as a safe keeper during the campaign, has revealed the truth, it is time for Roh, the owner of this safe, to follow suit,” Yoo Jong-pul, the MDP’s spokesman said.

Yoo, the former public relations secretary for President Roh during in-house nomination elections of MDP, added, “I am informed that everything related to campaign funds should be reported to Roh so that we can prevent the funds from being misused and express gratitude to the funds providers.”

He also said, “It is a typical tactic for candidates to say ‘I don’t know’ when some problems appear. In particular, along with finding that the official amount of the funds kept in a safe has reached 18.8 billion won, Roh should reveal how much illegal funds he dealt with unofficially by working together with Ahn Hee-jung, Lee Kwang-jae, Seon Bong-sul, Lee Ki-myung, and other collaborators, who played manger-like roles in the fund raising.”

MDP vice spokesman Jang Jeon-hyeong urged a prompt revealing of the total scale of the illegal funds, saying, “The official amount of funds admitted by Lee is just the tip of iceberg.” Thus, President Roh and his aides should make it clear how much in unofficial funds they collected, including the funds raised by the Busan camp and special party membership fees that Lee received from Ahn and Rep. Chyung Dai-chul who headed President Roh’s campaign during the 2002 election.

Meanwhile, the opposition GNP drew the issue that the sum of illegal funds, which Roh camp collected during the 2002 election campaign from top-five companies such as LG, SK, Hyundai Motors Co., Lotte, and other smaller companies, reached 13.3 billion won, which is one and half the amount of the GNP. (9.5 billion won)

GNP spokesman Park Jin said, “Even though it has become known that the total of the illegal funds furnished by top-five companies is 50.2 billion won vs. 0 won, according to the results of prosecution investigation, these are just figures that GNP received before unifying candidates.” And, he pointed out, “If other funds raised by the other companies are added to the sum of Roh’s camp, the total amount (13.3 billion won) will surpass a fifth of GNP’s (58.67 billion won).”

In addition, Park urged the prosecution to tighten the investigation and to reveal if there are other funds that Roh camp received from top-five companies as well as other smaller companies. Regarding MDP’s claim on another 20 billion won in Roh’s camp which has not been found, Park also called for further investigation on this.

Sung-Won Park Yeon-Wook Jung swpark@donga.com jyw11@donga.com