[Editorial] GNP, Comply with Prosecution’s Summons Immediately

The Grand National Party (GNP) must force its members who have received summons to present themselves to the prosecution immediately regarding the investigation into the illegal funding situation. This is also true for Rep. Choi Don-woong who is involved in the SK slush fund case and is in hiding without answering his summons. Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, the party’s chief strategist for political affairs, said, “How can we cooperate when only the opposition is being stripped one-sidedly?” Hong revealed the party’s intentions to continue to disregard the summons, but this is wrong. GNP floor leader Hong Sa-duk said that he himself prevented Choi from responding to the summons, but if it is true that the floor leader of a majority party had a say in the decision of whether a suspect presented himself to the prosecution or not, then he will only lose the people’s trust.

The GNP’s attitude is in direct conflict with the apologies made by former party leader Lee Hoi-chang and current leader Choe Byung-yul who said, “We will be strictly judged according to the law, and we will actively participate in the prosecution’s investigation underway.” The GNP says its reason for doing so is because the prosecution is losing impartiality between the ruling and opposition party as the investigation continues, but this is not an acceptable excuse.

The people are watching the investigation developments with intense interest, and the prosecution is well aware that a biased investigation could cost them the people’s expectations and trust. This is probably why Prosecutor General Song Kwang-soo said, “You must not assess a war by its individual battles” in response to the GNP’s assertion of an “organized investigation targeting the GNP.” In this context, National Assembly Speaker and former GNP member, Park Kwan-Yong’s statement that “the prosecution’s investigation is influenced by the president’s political intentions regarding the coming general elections” is highly inappropriate.

The prosecution is already tracking approximately 10 bank accounts from the Roh Moo-hyun camp, and has revealed that a borrowed-name account was included. Yesterday, they called Rep. Lee Sang-soo of the Uri Party, the former secretary general and chief financier of the MDP during the presidential elections, for investigation.

This is not the time for the GNP to find fault with the prosecution’s investigation into Roh’s camp with sneers of “keeping up appearances” and a “presidential election funding show.” They should come clean first. The GNP’s only hope for survival is to actively cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation and show that they will justly await the people’s verdict.