Opposition party must come clean on bribery scandal

Yang Kyeong-suk, the former head of Radio 21 who is charged with accepting bribes in exchange for promising nominations for the main opposition Democratic United Party’s proportional representation seats, widely supported party floor leader Park Jie-won at its national convention in January. Yang posted a string of comments backing Park on Twitter and Facebook ahead of the convention. Park was elected to the party’s supreme council by placing fourth. Even after the end of the convention, Yang continued to support Park until nominations of the party’s candidates for the April general elections were finalized, but backed party chairman Lee Hae-chan in the national convention in June.

Both Yang and Park admit that the former supported the latter. Park was reportedly introduced to Yang, known as a “netizen expert,” to cope with a new environment in that the direction of the race to elect the party leadership significantly changed following the introduction of mobile voting. Yang was a member of the pro-Roh Moo-hyun group “Rohsamo (Roh Love)” and the operator of the webcaster Radio 21. She also served as an executive committee member of the pro-Roh group “One Million People’s Order,” and wielded immense influence over right-leaning Internet users. Whether she would have supported Park without gaining anything in return is in doubt.

Yang is known to have accepted more than 4 billion won (3.53 million U.S. dollars) from three people, including Lee Yang-ho, chairman of Gangseo Facility Management Corp. of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, by promising to help him win a proportional representation seat of the main opposition party. Initially suspecting that the money could have been funneled to Park as bribes to buy a parliamentary seat, prosecutors have traced the flow of money and bank accounts but have yet to find solid evidence. Park is also denying taking money from Yang. Mobile phone text messages in Park’s name sent to Lee Yang-ho, who has been arrested for his role in the scandal, include a memo suggesting that Park seemingly sought money in return for nominations. But the message was found to be fake and written by Yang herself. Prosecutors confirmed that she transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to Roh Hye-gyeong, former chief of Rohsamo, and former executives of Radio 21, and then withdrew in cash a significant amount of the funds. Where the money went is being investigated.

The Democratic United Party cannot be deemed completely irrelevant to the scandal given that the three alleged bribers applied for proportional representation seats and considering Yang’s role. The possibility cannot be ruled out that Yang and Park forged a deal in which the two exchanged requests for favors in the nomination process and assistance in earning mobile votes for Park. If by chance money and requests for nomination were involved in the recruitment of voters for mobile voting in the election of the party’s leadership, this can constitute a new election irregularity that distorts the purpose of mobile voting.

The party formed on its own an investigation team to probe "contributions to buy candidacies at the ruling Saenuri Party” in connection with the money-for-candidacy scandal involving Rep. Hyun Young-hee, whom Saenuri has expelled. The main opposition party, however, should first confess and come clean on the Yang scandal before trying to find fault with others.