President Orders Revision of Laws Regarding Political Funds

President Roh Moo-hyun has been said to order to revise laws covering political funds at an informal meeting with senior presidential officials including chief presidential secretary Moon Hee-sang, senior secretary for political affairs Yoo In-tae, and senior secretary for civil affairs Moon Jae-in on July 14 at Chung Wa Dae.

Regarding the matter, as President Roh is expected to present a bill calling for a revision of the law related to political relations including political funds at a National Assembly session at the second half of the year, public attention has been drawn to how political circles will deal with the president`s expected proposal. Participants at the meeting quoted the president as saying, “Facing the scandal involving chairman of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party Chyung Dai-chul`s receipt of election campaign funds, the government is in an urgent need of fundamentally revising related laws and regulations covering political activities which fail to reflect the reality of political circles` atmosphere to break the vicious circles of producing lawbreakers.”

The president emphasized, “Through negations with ruling and opposition parties at the National Assembly, full-scale revisions of election laws and regulations regarding political funds should be carried out to create an atmosphere enabling a transparent and clean politics. And revised laws and regulations should be introduced in the upcoming general elections to be held next year.” It has been known that the president also said during the meeting, “Unpractical provisions of the current laws covering political fund-raisings, which limit the ceiling of donated money, need some changes.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the National Assembly Park Kwan-yong said in a KBS radio interview on Monday, “There were a lot of cases difficult to define whether the money politicians received was legitimate political funds or slush funds asking favors. Therefore, political circles should speed up public discussions on drawing a clear line between legitimate political funds and illegal ones at an earlier date possible.”

“When donations are made to politicians, no one asks favors on the spot. Although the fact, some politicians later provide those who donated the money with favors,” the Speaker said.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com