Prosecutors try to look other way

"Time will resolve it." That's said by a high-ranking official of the Prosecutors' Office, which is conducting an investigation into the scandal revolving around irregular lending by Hanvit Bank.

The official said that such situations used to be clamorous and that there is a good medicine called time, complaining about press reports on September 8 when the office announced results of an investigation of the Hanvit Bank scandal.

The press does not believe the announcement by the Prosecutors' Office. But his remarks mean that the scandal will be forgotten and that criticism about the Prosecutors' Office will diminish as time goes by.

In fact, prosecutors used to patch up major political scandals and just thought that they would be resolved as time goes by. As they calculated, in many cases, they easily were forgotten by the nation and the press.

However, the prosecutors need to be reminded of the fact that they sometimes had to suffer a bitter insult by trying to close an investigation midway.

During the primary investigation of the Hanbo scandal in 1997, prosecutors hurriedly closed the investigation on forced bank lending without investigating the main figure behind it. Under heavy criticism by the public, however, they resumed the investigation and had to arrest Kim Hyun-Chul, son of then-President Kim Young-Sam.

Last year, the prosecutors tried to patch up the so-called clothing lobby scandal and provoked people's suspicion, and they had to reinvestigate the case with a special prosecutor.

The public sentiment monitored after the Chuseok holidays shows that there is a prevailing distrust and sneer among people about the prosecutors' investigation of the Hanvit scandal. They want an intensive investigation of the alleged outside pressure for irregular lending, which was raised by former Youngdong branch manager of Korea Credit Guarantee Fund Lee Woon-Young.

It is believed that the Prosecutors' Office shouldn't forget the fact that if it makes any political decision about a scandal without thorough investigation, it later hits them hard.

In fact, the Prosecutors' Office previously gave its pledge that it would be reborn with the investigation upheaval related to the clothing lobby scandal.

Yang Ki-Dae kee@donga.com