[EDITORIALS]The tale of the tape

We are wondering how far the irresponsible comportment of the Millennium Democratic Party lawmaker, Sul Hoon, will go. The people have paid very close attention to his accusation that Lee Hoi-chang took a bribe from Choi Gyu-seon because of the seriousness of the allegation. Mr. Sul boasted Friday that he had a witness and a tape recording that can prove Mr. Choi instructed Representative Yun Ye-joon of the Grand National Party to relay 250 million won ($190,000) to Lee Hoi-chang. But right after he made this accusation he backed down a bit, saying "The witness is reluctant to make the tape public and I need more time to persuade him." On Tuesday, Mr. Sul said, "It was careless to make such an accusation without listening to the tape first." We don't know whether he was trying to apologize for or withdraw his initial accusation. As a result, the credibility of his "disclosure" is in free fall. A growing number of people are tilting toward asking him to be responsible for his actions if his accusations turn out to be groundless. In other words, he should resign from his seat in the National Assembly.

He seems to change his words according to the circumstances to buy time. He had said, "Hearing the tape, it was Lee Hoi-chang who received the money." Now he says he has not heard the tape, emphasizing that he simply has not succeeded in persuading the witness who has the tape to make it public. We cannot help but demand that he first reveal who the witness is. Furthermore, words are coming from the Millennium Democratic Party that initially someone other than Mr. Sul was about to make the accusation. We are simply puzzled at this excuse. Does that mean there are others behind the scene and Mr. Sul is simply a proxy for the dirty job of disclosure?

Mr. Sul should explain everything with no questions left to be answered. He should reveal who the witness is and whether that person has the tape. If he does, and if his words are substantiated with evidence, all the rage aimed at him would move directly to Mr. Lee and Mr Yun. If he tries to buy more time, he would be suspected of fabrications. We should find out the real truth about the accusation so that politicians can shore up their will to root out the low-life political tactics of muckraking.