President’s Associates Pressured the Prosecution

Former Prosecutor General Song Kwang-soo maintained that he was pressured by President Roh Moo-hyun’s close associates when he was investigating the illegal political funds that the president received during his election campaign.

Song said in a guest lecture at Soongsil University on April 19, “President Roh said that he would resign if what he spent exceeded 10 percent of the opposition Grand National Party’s illegal election funds. But what the prosecution found was 20-30 percent,” adding, “Then, close associates said, ‘The prosecutors are too daring. We need to do something about them.’”

He also said, “They argued that the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office was conducting excessive investigations out of ambition, and that the investigation department should be dissolved. The Justice Ministry (led by then Minister Kang Keum-sil) also reviewed a possible elimination,” adding, “There was also talk of eliminating the criminal information department, which gives information to the investigation department. So there were conflicts with the Justice Ministry.”

He also suggested that, prior to the investigation into the illegal election funds, there was also pressure from the presidential office over the prosecution’s investigation into illegal lobbying by Nara Investment Banking Corporation in 2003.

He said, “I requested an arrest warrant for the president’s ‘left arm’ (Ahn Hee-jeong), but the court dismissed the request three times, citing insufficient evidence. Cheong Wa Dae expressed their deep displeasure, saying, ‘why did you request a warrant three times?’”

However, he explained in a telephone interview with some media outlets on April 20 that, “I intended to say that the presidential office would have naturally felt displeased,” adding, “During the investigation period, I was not interested in the exact amount of the president’s election funds, say, more than 10 percent or not.”

A former high-ranking official who worked for Cheong Wa Dae in 2004 countered, “There was talk of eliminating the investigation department at the Senior Prosecutors’ Office in the Kim Young-sam administration,” adding, “The issue was reviewed again in 2004 as a research topic for prosecution reshuffling. But we didn’t discuss it publicly to avoid misunderstandings, given the situation.”

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