[Editorial] Prerequisites for prosecutors' thorough probe

It is an extra-ordinary development that the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) leaders discussed the possibility of advising Minister of Culture and Tourism Park Jie-Won to step down from office. MDP legislative members, one after another, have recently requested the adoption of a special prosecutor to investigate the case of external pressures over Hanvit Bank and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KCGF) for unlawful loan arrangements. At last, the issue of Minister Park's resignation has officially been discussed Monday at the MDP Supreme Council (MDPSC) members' workshop.

Officially, the MDP denied such a discussion at the workshop despite some MDPSC members' testimonies to the contrary. But, many MDP legislative members called for Park's resignation again at the MDP lawmakers' general meeting on Tuesday. The atmosphere that now prevails over the ruling quarters appears by and large in favor of Park's resignation.

Whether or not the MDP's official position is in favor of Park's resignation is not of so much of importance here as the circumstances and backdrop that gave rise to the call for Park's stepping down.

The meaningful development here is that the ruling quarters are finally persuaded to arrive at a conclusion that the present political impasse cannot be resolved unless the suspicions surrounding the loan pressure scandal over Hanvit Bank and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund are thoroughly investigated, so as to leave no stone unturned. For this, it seems, they came to a realization that the prosecutors' investigation of Minister Park is inevitable and that his stepping down will make the probe more credible.

As some people in the ruling quarters have already pointed out, the key issue of the scandal is whether or not there was Minister Park's unlawful pressure for the loans. This makes it imperative that the prosecutors' investigations of Park should be most thorough and rigorous. It is only the transparency of the prosecutors' probe, which can restore people's confidence in the nation's prosecutors and the Kim administration. Against such a backdrop, a MDPSC member rightly pointed out that it will hardly be possible for prosecutors to thoroughly investigate a cabinet minister while he remains in his portfolio.

Now, the onus is on the prosecutors for a full-fledged and exhaustive probe of the case. Their investigation of Minister Park is inevitable, now that Lee Un-Young, ex-KCGF Youngdong branch manager, stated that he will voluntarily appear before the prosecution office on Sept. 21. Lee has alleged that he took off because he underwent retaliatory investigations by the Sajik-dong police team (Presidential police taskforce recruited from the National Police Bureau's investigation squad) after his rejection of the alleged loan pressure by Park.

Equally rigorous probes must be carried out over Son Yong-Moon, a KCGF director, who has allegedly exerted pressures over Lee for the loan as well as Choi Soo-Byung, ex-KCGF board chairman who tried to have Lee resign after receiving Chong Wa Dae's call for the loan.

The key to the probe is the prosecutors' determination for a thorough investigation. Their instant cross-examinations are essential to dispel the suspicions when ex-KCGF branch manger Lee's statements contradict Minister Park and Park Hye-Ryong, who managed to have Hanvit Bank's unlawful loan.

We should like to emphasize here again that the Hanvit Bank loan scandal and the loan pressures over the KCGF branch manager are not two separate cases but one and the same intractably related case as it seems to us. The top prosecutors must make a decision to combine the investigations by Seoul's East District Prosecutors' Office in charge of the KCGF case and by Seoul¡¯s Main Prosecutors' Office for the Hanvit Bank loan scandal. Thus, the two cases must be probed by the same office of prosecutors.

The investigation must be carried out by special probe department of prosecutors instead of their ordinary probe section. This will free the investigators from being constrained by the results of earlier investigations which concluded as a simple case of money swindling. The prosecutors have no reason for dilly-dallying about the investigation, now that their thorough probe is called for by none other than the ruling quarters.