“Is Lying an Act of State?”

At the New Year seasons, the nation felt anger and despondency towards the lies of the government.

When President Kim Dae-jung admitted on the 30th that he gave 223.5 billion Won to North Korea, citizens expressed their anger, saying, “He denied at first and that was lying.”

Especially, people criticized President Kim’s insistence that it is not proper to deal this problem judicially.

Some insisted that rationalization of this under the name of an act of state is feudalistic and others insisted that this is an act benefiting the enemy, rather than an act of state.

The novelist Park Wan-seo (72) said, “I felt sick of the political community where everything suspected turns out to be true. President of a nation should not lie in such a situation.”

A professor of Pusan National University Park Hong-won said, “The government repressed the nation’s right to know under the name of an act of state. I cannot understand why the government kept denying then at last admitted it.”

Others also criticized. Kye Myeong-guk (an office worker, 29) said, “How can the government spend more than 200 billion without people’s approval, in the time of recession when the unemployment rate keep going up?” A lawyer Jang Woo-seung said, “The government said there was no backdoor dealing but now it says it was an act of state. This is because the government look down upon the people.”

People also insist that this case should be dealt in accordance with the law, and make clear who is responsible and what is the truth.

A professor of Ewha Womans University Kim Suk-jun said, “The act of state should be performed in the category of the law and in the basis of morality. The act of deceiving people with political reckoning should be made clear.” He also added, “Backdoor dealing (with North Korea) concerning money should be clearly examined, no matter it is the president, staff or the government party.”

Kang Young-sik, the director of Korean Sharing Movement urged a thorough investigation and said, “Even the private organization’s humanist support for North Korea went through a strict observation and confirmation steps. To give huge amount of money secretly is very serious problem. Moreover, we don’t know for what purpose the money would be used.”

The president of Environment and People said, “Hyundai Merchant Marine should be punished if it remitted 200 billion Won without any report to the authorities. Korea cannot be an advanced country if corruptions are performed under the cloak of an act of state, and lies of high-ranking officials are not punished.”

In the legal community, many people thought that President’s insistence for the punishment is not proper.

A lawyer Ha Chagwoo, the publicity director of The Korean Bar Association said, “It is not proper for the President to avoid his responsibility, insisting it was an act of state.”

A lawyer Lee Sokyeon, a former secretary general of Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice urged immediate apology of the President and said, “The President should not try to evade this case which he decided secretly without any national agreement.”