“No Relations to Lee, Former Head Lee Hoi-chang I’ll bear the Responsibility.”

Former Secretary General of the Grand National Party, Kim Young-il, admitted on October 26 that he had used illegal sources of election funds related to the secret money of 10 billion won transferred to the party from SK Group during the presidential election last year, saying, “Even though we had known this fund was not from a transparent source, we have not returned it.”

Former Secretary Kim, who also was director of election policies, in a report said, “Even though it was a mistake because of an old political practice, somebody has to responsible for it since the mistake was done. As a director of the election policies who comprehensively managed the election tasks at that time, I would bear all the judicial, political, and moral responsibilities for it.”

However, he insisted that he had not engaged in fund raising, saying, “I did not have any contact with SK.” In addition, he added that the former presidential candidate, Lee Hoi-chang was not involved in the fund’s raising and exertion.

He also said, “The counter plan meeting held right before last year’s Central Party Supporters’ Association’s meeting has nothing to do with the secret money and was just another annual ordinary meeting before the Association’s meeting. It is not imaginable that we have discussed raising this illegal secret money at the party level and ordered a specific person to exert this plan.”

Former Secretary General Kim said, “I will cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation about SK’s secret money transfer to the Grand National Party.” He warned at the end of the press interview, “We have to resolve the structural problems of political funds through this incident, and if anyone uses this incident as a strategic purpose to suppress the oppositional party again, they will not be forgiven forever.”

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com