[Editorial] President Roh’s Backward-looking Act of State Theory

At the Cabinet council held yesterday, President Roh, regarding Ahn Hee-jeong’s secret contact with North Korea, said, “I didn’t have to report it since it was a special order and part of the president’s job duties.” He thinks nothing was wrong politically or legally. President Roh is ridiculing the people by admitting the fact two weeks after the Weekly Dong-A revealed Ahn’s secret contact with North Korea. What’s more difficult to understand, however, is his understanding of the case.

On the previous day, Prime Minister Han Deok-soo said in the National Assembly, “We are currently investigating the case. If it was a transgression of the law, there will be a corresponding measure.” If the investigation is not done in one day, President Roh will be interpreting the law as he likes. After Roh’s remark, the Ministry of Unification announced officially, “Ahn’s contact with North Korea does not conflict with the law.” The president gave it a guideline.

We are concerned about Roh’s “act of the state” theory revealed when he said, “It is part of the president’s job duties.” His theory implies that the president’s act of the state does not come under judicial examination. It is a law-ignoring logic used by past authoritative administrations. Heo Yeong, constitutional scholar and guest professor at Myongji University, said, “It is an obsolete theory abandoned by the Constitutional Court.”

At the beginning of his term, President Roh accepted the introduction of a special prosecution system to investigate the Kim Dae-jung administration’s secret remittance to North Korea. It occasioned the South and North Korea Relationship Advancement Law made to guarantee the transparency of contact with North Korea and national agreement. Roh himself criticized the secret remittance case as a law-ignoring act of state in his speech at the Advisory on Democratic Peaceful Unification last December. However, he is now defending Ahn’s secret contact case as “part of the president’s job duties.”

While responsible officials were involved in the case with the Kim Dae-jung administration, regular citizens with no authority or responsibility were entrusted by President Roh to contact North Korea. Especially, Moon Seong-geun was sent to North Korea in December 2003, while the first instance trial of the secret remittance case was underway. We are aghast at President Roh’s duplicity. There is a rumor that Moon delivered Roh’s letter to North Korea. President Roh should reveal what really happened to the people and let judicial authorities judge those involved.