Roh, Stock Manipulation Scandals Related to Salvaging Treasure Ship

The majority Grand National Party (GNP) and the pro-government Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) Dec. 5 have continued to exchange charges and countercharges against each other over suspicions related to money.

 GNP on the offensive = Rep. Lee Gyu-taek of the GNP said, "In December, 2000, Dong Ah Construction Industrial Co., Ltd inflated the size of the project of salvaging a treasure ship to 50 trillion won, skyrocketing share price. But the company went bust and minority shareholders suffered a loss of several hundred billion won. Therefore, Roh Moo-hyun, then Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, should take responsibility." He added that the ministry gave a business permit to the salvaging operations as a 5 billion won project, but that it announced there was no official data on the prices of treasures, boosting up the rising share price all the more.

Lee Gyu-taek also insisted, "In February of 2001, Lee yong-ho of Samae Indus made a false announcement doubling the size of its salvage operations of a treasure ship from 1 billion won to 2 billion won and the company got profits of 25.6 billion won from its soaring stock price. However, at that time, Roh and his ministry in charge just sat back and watched." "Was Roh engaged in the stock price manipulation? And did he buy real estate with the money he got from that? " Lee asked.

In response, Kim Man-su of the MDP said that Roh was not related to those incidents, because the business permit was given to the Don Ah construction company and Mr. Lee Yong-ho, each in October, 1999 and in April, 2000, while Roh was appointed as the minister In August, 2000.

 MDP on the offensive = Lee Hae-chan, senior official of the MDP election preparation committee said, "There is talk that Lee Hoi-chang`s late father had a fortune. The GNP candidate should reveal the property of family members in a direct line and who inherited his father`s fortune." He raised suspicions saying, "Lee Hoi-chang registered the land of 7,000 pyong, he bought in 1987 for less than 100 million won, far less than the actual price then. Though he argued that the land was for his family graveyard, it cannot be used for that purposes, because it is within a new city of Hwa-seong."

Against the MDP`s offensive, Lee Hi-chang said that his late father`s property is only the house in Myeonryun-dong (declared value 252.48 million won), forests and land in Yesan, south Chung province, a Potentia made in 1993 and 317.11 million won in cash. And he called on the MDP to stop immoral activities to defame an already deceased person.

Young-Hae Choi Jong-Koo Yoon yhchoi65@donga.com jkmas@donga.com