[Editorial] Independent Counsel for Aides’ Scandal Should Block “Political Influence”

The Independent Counsel Team, led by Kim Jin-heung and launching its official investigation today, must feel under more pressure than any other previous investigation teams since this team will probe into “the living authority.” Now that the special investigation is ahead of the general election on April 15, the Grand National Party (GNP) and the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), not to speak of Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party, cannot help paying every attention to the probes. Independent Counsel Kim Jin-heung requires being a solid shield by himself against any external impacts by authority and political circles who aim to detour the direction of the probe toward their own interests.

The core issue Kim has to focus on is the suspicions surrounding President Roh Moo-hyun. One may say that the prosecution has also dealt with presidential aides’ scandal to some extent since the three major opposition parties had resolved the independent counsel law. However, most of the investigation and legal judgment that involves the president was set aside and left to the independent counsel. Although the prosecution found out a letter “Roh” in the tax reduction report of Sun & Moon Group, it didn’t do an in-depth research on then-presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun’s impact on the former head of the National Tax Office, Sohn Young-rae. According to the constitutional law, we can’t file charges against the president on service. However, given that the president himself vowed to receive questions voluntarily regarding his allegations, it is likely that the Independent Counsel Team and Cheong Wa Dae can make consensus on the method of probes and the timing.

The prosecution also deferred the legal judgment on the fact that presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun stayed together with Sun & Moon Group’s Chairman Moon Byung-wook and his presidential aides, but left the place just before the money was delivered to his aides. Along with this matter, the Independent Counsel Team should examine how deeply President Roh was involved in the suspicion of paying back Changsoochun Company’s debt by using illicit presidential campaign funds. There is a wide gap of viewpoint between the prosecutions and the opposition parties in terms of the size of illegal presidential election funds and congratulatory funds that the president’s aides such as Ahn Hee-jung, Lee Kwang-jae and Choi Do-sul had allegedly received. The Independent Counsel Team should prove all the incomplete facts, while terminating the groundless inspections of the prosecution’s previous investigations.

Presidential aides’ scandal is a chronic and repetitive issue since the military dictatorial government times until the present democratization era. The Independent Counsel Kim Jin- heung should lead investigation thoroughly enough to make the phrase “presidential aides’ scandal” disappear in this nation, and also to warn this to the next generation. In order to do that, the Independent Counsel Team should never be shaky against political powers from outside, whether coming from Cheong Wa Dae or from the ruling or the opposition parties.

Hwang Ho-taek, Editorial Writer, hthwang@donga.com