Resign As GNP Presidential Nominee, If My Son’s Draft-dodging Is True

With regard to the draft-dodging scandal surrounding his eldest son, on Wednesday Lee Hoi-chang, the presidential nominee of the Grand National Party (GNP), said, “If I did anything illegal to help my son dodge the mandatory military service, I will resign as GNP presidential nominee and retire from politics.”

At a press conference hastily prepared at the GNP headquarters, the nominee added, “I swear to God that I didn’t do any wrongdoing to exempt my son from the military service.”

“The current government is engaging in political maneuvering,” he continued. “If their allegation of my son having dodged draft proves wrong, they should retire from political life by all means.

As for the appointment of an independent counsel and the demand that he and his wife Han In-ok should appear before the prosecution, he responded it doesn’t make sense that false report of an unreliable man leads to the appointment of the independent counsel. He said, “If the prosecution conducts a fair investigation, the truth will come out without summoning of my wife and me.”

He strongly denied the allegation of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) that Ms. Han offered 10 million won to military officials in bribes to help his son evade military service. He said a Korean proverb that man wife are of one mind and flesh, suggesting that he might have known it if his wife was engaged in bribery.

He insisted the Kim administration is engaging in political maneuvering in three ways such like “five fabricated stories,” and that it is taking advantage of reorganization of government set-ups, formation of a political party and the current inter-Korean relations politically.

Taking aim at Park Young-kwan, the senior prosecutor at the Seoul District Public Prosecutors’ Office in charge of the draft-dodging case, Lee Hoi-chang said that the person in charge of the investigation should be replaced because of his disqualification in the investigation. But he added that the GNP had no intention to put pressure on the ongoing probe.

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com