[EDITORIALS]A shocking accusation

The statement by Yoo Jong-pil, spokesperson of the Millennium Democratic Party, that “Roh’s camp was flooded with money after the election” was shocking. If true, this proves that the collaboration between power and illicit money, which has continued to plague politics since our independence, is by no means over. The Blue House must get to the bottom of this immediately, and if necessary, the prosecution must investigate.
Of course, there is the need to verify Mr. Yoo’s statement. We can guess that he has more information on the Roh camp than others, because he was a core member of the camp during the last election. On the other hand, given the recent split between the Millennium Democratic Party and the newly launched People’s Participatory and Unity Party, Mr. Yoo may have made the accusation out of political necessity. Even so, this is too serious a matter to ignor. His statements, such as “After winning the election, people lost their reason in the flood of money and power,” cannot be regarded lightly. This implies that Choi Do-sul’s allegedly receiving 1.1 billion won in bribes from SK Group was the tip of the iceberg.
After the election, it was indeed rumored that corporations were trying to find some kind of a network by which to reach President Roh. Moreover, Mr. Roh was elected with the expectation that he could end the inappropriate relationship between politicians and businessmen. In fact, this is the key political reform asserted by the de facto ruling party, the People’s Participatory and Unity Party.
Mr. Yoo must confess all he has seen and heard in detail. The Blue House should come out and verify the truth, because it could become an accepted fact, if the Blue House is ambiguous about this. The collusion between presidential aides and businessmen distorts the economy and directly affects the lives of the people. This should be handled with more severity than the kickbacks to lawmakers. The call in political circles for the immediate cleanup of Blue House staff is not entirely irrelevant to this. President Roh must not ignore those demands.