MDP chief offers to detail funds

Lee Sang-soo, secretary-general of the Millennium Democratic Party, proposed yesterday that the governing party would take the lead in detailing its 2002 presidential election campaign funds.
“Our party is willing to disclose the campaign funds, if it heightens the possibility that the opposition party will follow suit,” Mr. Lee said. He was in charge of party coffers during last year’s election.
“I have told [party chairman] Chyung Dai-chul of this idea, and will officially propose it to the entire party on Monday,” Mr. Lee said. “Chairman Chyung said that we should decide after watching developments.”
The campaign funds of both the Millennium Democratic and the Grand National parties became an issue after testimony by Yoon Chang-yeol, president of the bankrupt Goodmorning City Corp., that he gave money to Mr. Chyung. The governing party chairman admitted receiving the money, and there is speculation that about 20 more politicians may have also received funds from the same source. President Roh Moo-hyun Tuesday proposed full disclosure of election-related funds received by both major political parties, a move criticized by some political analysts as an attempt to divert scrutiny of the Millennium Democrats’ ties to the Goodmorning City case.
Mr. Lee’s comments were not well-received by the Blue House. “The Millennium Democratic Party can disclose its campaign funds after reaching an agreement with the opposition party that it, too, will do so,” Yoo Ihn-tae, senior secretary for political affairs, said. “So unless the opposition agrees, the Millennium Democratic Party cannot go first.”
The Blue House spokesman, Yoon Tai-young, agreed, asking, “Shouldn’t disclosure take place simultaneously by both parties?”
A Blue House aide, requesting anonymity, said, “If by ‘disclosing’ the secretary-general means making public what the party reported to the National Election Commission, it would not only be meaningless but may well invite public criticism.”
The Grand National Party rejected disclosure. “We are not even considering disclosing,” said Choe Byung-yul, the party chairman. He said that his party’s presidential election campaign was not under suspicion.
The party spokesman, Park Jin, called on President Roh Moo-hyun to answer questions over the governing party’s campaign funds.

by Shin Yong-ho