&#91EDITORIALS&#93What’s behind the cover-up?

Government investigators point to the former presidential chief of staff, Park Jie-won, as the orchestrator of the cover-up of a robbery more than a year ago at the house of an ex-arms dealer, Kim Yeong-wan. Mr. Park allegedly ordered the National Police Agency to keep the case secret and searched for an officer to conduct a confidential investigation. That allegation contradicts the finding of an internal police investigation, which said a police officer on loan to the Blue House started the cover-up. The new allegation indicates that the police either did a sloppy job on the internal investigation or were trying to continue to prevent facts from coming out.
The police have made enough excuses. They said that in keeping the case under a lid they were protecting the victim. They went on to deny Blue House involvement and to operate a secret channel of command on the case. There have been enough lies, from the police leadership down to the field officers. If they were trying to cover up Mr. Park’s in-volvement in the cover-up, the police should not be forgiven. It is unimaginable what the police owed Mr. Park that could command such a favor. Or does Mr. Park, who has been indicted for abusing his authority, still wield the influence to order a cover-up?
We must find out what is behind the attempt to protect Mr. Park. He and his boss are now gone from office, so why were the police apparently trying to keep him from being implicated? The new administration must lead the search for answers. If it does not, it will fuel suspicion that this administration is somehow affected by the improprieties of the previous one. With Mr. Park, the de facto No. 2 man in the Kim Dae-jung Blue House, at the center of a 15 billion won ($12.5 million) question, there is ample grounds to discredit the Kim administration’s ethics.
A close confidant of the former president, Kwon Roh-kap, is believed to have lived in a house owned by the former arms dealer. Mr. Kwon says there was a legitimate lease, but something is very suspicious. It is just one of a number of unanswered questions about the robbery. They must not remain unanswered; it is time for the prosecution to get the facts.