Byeon Yang-gyun and Former President of Dongguk University Exchanged Favors

Byeon Yang-gyun, the former chief of the Presidential Policy Office, appointed a novelist who goes by Lee (44) as his policy aide in April 2005 when he was the minister of Planning and Budget, the prosecution revealed yesterday. Lee was a disciple and junior of Hong Ki-sam, former president of Dongguk University.

After Lee’s nomination, Hong appointed Shin Jeong-ah, who was allegedly in an intimate relationship with Byeon, as an assistant professor of the university. The report raises suspicions that Hong and Byeon exchanged favors by providing jobs for each other’s close acquaintances.

A prosecutorial investigation also revealed that Byeon called former Dongguk University president Hong and recommended Shin, praising her as a promising curator and his junior at Yale.

“The ministry’s secretary office contacted me first and requested to submit my resume for the job. I assumed at the time former presidential aide Byeon came to know me while looking for a figure in the cultural circle because he didn’t like people involved in the politics,” said novelist Lee in a telephone interview with this newspaper on Wednesday.

Lee also said, “Hong might have asked Byeon to employ me. When I made a courtesy visit to him after the appointment was confirmed, he wished me a good luck as if he already knew what was going on.”

Though Hong didn’t actively engage in social activities, he was known to have had close contact with fellow Korean Literature majors.

Lee made his literary debut by wining a literary contest held by a literary magazine in 1985, and published more than 10 novels. “While working for a minister’s policy aide, I wrote press releases and speech materials,” Lee said.

When asked whether he was fit for the job of policy advisor as a “person who had never worked as a public servant,” as he had confessed, he defended himself, saying he had written corporation histories and worked as a copywriter before the appointment.

Regarding Lee’s qualifications, an official at the Ministry of Planning and Budget said, “The policy aide to the minister plays an advisor’s role on matters involving the National Assembly, other ministries, and the general public.”

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