“Ahn Scandal” Money Might Be from YS

The Supreme Court’s sentence of acquittal regarding the “Ahn scandal” is expected to bring a heavy political aftermath.

First, the “Ahn scandal” has far more influence on politics than on justice itself. In practice, the life and death of Grand National Party (GNP) will be determined by the run-off of the “Ahn scandal.”

If it is revealed true by the Supreme Court that the funds of the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP), the former establishment of National Intelligence Service, had been used by Grand National Party as political funds, the party will be stigmatized as the embezzlers of national funds, and also the party will have to pay about 90 billion won as a penalty.

Accordingly, judging that the fund is not from ANSP is the equivalent as giving the Grand National Party an indulgence.

Also, the prosecution, who investigated the scandal and the ruling party and used the “Ahn scandal” to attack the opposition party, are also likely to suffer from the aftermath. In fact, the GNP, which was trapped by the scandal, has had a hard time recovering from the dishonor of being immoral on the 16th National Assembly elections in 2000 and on the presidential election in 2002.

About the acquittal of “Ahn scandal,” the GNP said, “The politicking of the ruling party has been revealed.” The GNP is attacking back as it has become clear that the three main suspicions of GNP – “Ahn scandal,” “military scandal,” and “gun scandal”— were all politicking by the Kim Dae-jung administration.

For this reason, in the National Assembly this day, Park Geun-hye, an assemblyman of GNP, said to the press, “The GNP’s image has been greatly damaged and Kang Sam-jae, a former assemblyman, has suffered greatly. It is so fortunate that it was pronounced innocent.”

Hong Jun-pyo, an assemblyman who has worked deliberately to find out the truth on the “Ahn scandal,” said, “The three scandals that the ruling party has engaged in the last three years to keep their administration has all turned out to be false,” and added, “The current administration is a fake administration, and should take responsibility.”

However, it’s still a bit early to conclude that GNP has fully escaped from the “Ahn scandal” because there are still debates over the responsibility of Kim Young-sam, the former president.

On the other side, although the Uri Party has been puzzled, it did not retreat. Kim Kap-soo, the assistant spokesman, said, “Theft is not something that can be acquitted according to places. Is it justice to illegally use the money which definitely had been delivered illegally by the president of a country in the election?”

Yeon-Wook Jung jyw11@donga.com