The Prosecution Hesitates to Issue Arrest Warrant

Lee Kwang-jae, the former confidant of President Roh Moo-hyun, on December 11 admitted to accepting illegal political funds. The question now is whether or not he will be indicted and detained.

The prosecution accused Lee of accepting the 100 million won from the chairman of the Sun & Moon, Moon Byung-wook (51, arrested), last November and delivered it to Roh’s campaign party. Lee has accepted this fact by saying that he “delivered the fund from Moon to the party official,” on his way to answering the summons from the prosecution. He also added, “There must have been some confusion with issuing the receipt.”

The prosecution had taken a reserved stance, offering no official response on the level of punishment Lee would receive, except declaring that “the decision will be made on December 12, after a thorough investigation has completed.”

Regarding the issue, there are allegations that Lee would be indicted and physically detained like the other aides of the president who are under the same accusation of participating in the political fund scandal, such as Kang Keum-won, the chairman of Changshin Textile.

Though the amount of slush money that Lee received is not nearly as large as the billions of won the Grand National Party (GNP) had received as political funds, the illegal nature of receiving slush funds remains problematic.

However, others point out that because Lee had delivered all the money to Roh’s campaign party and did not use it any for personal purposes, he could be spared from being indicted.

On the other hand, the arrest warrant issued to Ahn Hee-jung, the presidential aide who is currently under allegations of receiving 390 million won in slush fund, had been dismissed twice, so it is still unclear what the prosecution’s verdict will be.

The prosecution will have to first discover if the Sun & Moon money was given as mere “political funds” or an “insurance deposit” for lobbying purposes.

Also, the fact that Lee was President Roh’s closest aide shifts the attention to whether or not Roh had any previous knowledge about the funding. Moon, who gave Lee the money, attended the same high school as Roh.

Whether or not Lee had accepted funds from other companies still needs to be clarified as well. Finally, the prosecution should prove if the fund had actually been delivered to the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), and if so, how and where the fund was used.

Tae-Hoon Lee Jin-Kyun Kil jefflee@donga.com leon@donga.com