[Editorial] The Problem is the Kin and the Close Aides’ Supervising System Which Failed to Fulfill the Function

Min Kyung-chan, the brother-in-law of Roh’s elder brother, who is vexing the nation with the alleged “fund-raising of 65.3 billion won,” was dealt with by the judiciary. He was charged with seizing 500 million won or more from a broker by the promise to give him the management of the cafeteria in the general hospital where Min was spearheading construction. It is terrible for the nation as they witness President Roh’s kin dealing with the judiciary and also witness the numerous arrests of his close aides.

Min, who maintained that he attracted 65.3 billion won, has changed his statements several times, and now it is being raised that there is a possibility that the fundraising itself was a lie. The nation is bristling due to the fact that they feel fooled by whether he indeed raised the funds backed by power or he told a lie to cover his misdeeds.

It was possible for such an affair to happen because Min is President Roh’s kin. Could such an affair happen if he had nothing to do with Cheong Wa Dae? This is the reason why President Roh and Cheong Wa Dae, as well as Min, are responsible to deal with this situation.

The division in Cheong Wa Dae, which is charged with the supervision of the president’s kin and close aides, has been criticized for exacerbating the problems by handling them with too much generosity. It quite often happened that it would make a rough investigation into an issue and conclude a case too quickly when the problems were not known to the public. Several affairs including the “Yang Gil-seung affair” of last year are such cases. It has led the situation into a mess again this time by neglecting Min, one of the objects of supervision, and by taking too much time in dealing with the revealed problem.

It is now tiresome to teach them a lesson from their mishandling of successive presidents’ kin or close aides and which has led to failure of the government. Cheong Wa Dae should hold accountable the people in charge who failed to find out the truth of the affair, and should renovate the functionally useless system of supervision of the president’s kin and close aides. In any event it should not let the problem be handled ineptly again.