Lee’s Effort to Settle Out of Court Backfired

Former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye declined yesterday to offer an apology for raising suspicions over her rival Lee Myung-bak’s link to dubious property deals. Park confronted Lee with her suspicions that he is the true owner of lucrative property that was registered to his brother-in-law, Kim Jae-jeong. In return, Kim filed defamation suits against Park Geun-hye. Even on Lee’s request to drop the suit, Kim rejected it, saying that Park’s apology should come first. For Kim’s in-effect refusal of discontinuance, Park’s camp responded saying that regardless of Kim’s withdrawal, the camp would call for Lee to clarify the suspicion around him in a direct and unequivocal manner.

“They are seemingly striving to find an excuse to drop the complaint. Otherwise, why are they in a hurry to close the case?” Park’s co-spokesman Lee Hye-hun said. “We have no reason to apologize for Kim telling the truth.”

“We hope prosecutors will continue the investigation into the speculation until they make this clear,” another spokesman Kim Jae-won said. “After a closer look at the developments, it appears that we have likely been misled by Lee’s efforts to make the complaint appear to be filed by Kim alone; the party asked Kim to drop the charge; Lee decided to withdraw the charge; and Kim rebutted the GNP’s request and Lee’s decision.”

In a press conference on July 11, 2007, Park’s Camp representative Choi Gyeong-hwan called on Lee Myung-bak for a personal explanation of suspicions: first, whether he dipped his hand in disposing the lucrative plot of land in Dogok-dong in affluent southern Seoul, which was registered to Kim; whether he received part of the proceeds from the sale; whether he was involved in the fraudulent financial scandal of investment company BBK; and whether he was linked to auto part company DAS whose biggest shareholders are his brother and brother-in law.

The GNP leadership has expressed regret for Kim’s rejection of withdrawing the suit and is taking a wait-and-see approach. Grand National Party leader Kang Jae-sup said “Kim did not make a prudent decision. We will keep an eye on the case.”

mhpark@donga.com