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Chronic Corruption Mars Elections

By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter


The festering boil of the nation's election-time politics has broken at last. It may be a surprise for ordinary voters, but many insiders in the political fields say exposure of the chronic corruption scandal was inevitable. Lures of large grafts in return for precious tickets to the May 31 local elections brought two heavyweight lawmakers of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) to their knees earlier this week. But this is not the end of the story.


Kim Deog-ryong, a fifth-term legislator of the main opposition party, and Park Sung-vum, another promising lawmaker, were both indicted by the prosecution on Thursday for being involved in a bribery scandal ahead of the upcoming local elections. Park bolted out of the party pleading his innocence while Kim hinted at retiring from politics without any lame excuses. But the scandal does not seem to be dying down despite a quick apology by the party leadership.


GNP Secretary General Rep. Huh Tae-yeol said in a press briefing that there are five to six other cases similar to those involving Kim and Park that the party has been examining through an in-house investigation. `It is really hard to find out such illicit money-for-candidacy deals since they are usually made in secret. So, I can't say for sure when any of them will be found out,'' he said. ``We might find some more problems in the coming days.''


Huh did not elaborate which cases were being probed by the party, but many in the political arena regard the corruption scandals, which are chronic in South Korean politics, as a ``time bomb'' that could blow up anytime. Though it is true other parties are also not free from such hullabaloos surrounding the candidate nomination process, rumors about illicit deals have thrived in GNP camp, which surpasses all the other parties by a big margin in approval ratings.


Often attacked by other parties as a being corrupt, the GNP was dealt a great blow ahead of the April 2004 general elections as it was found to have acquired a huge amount of illegal campaign funds in the run-up to the 2002 presidential race. Amid high unemployment rates in recent years, a number of young people have joined those who wish to run for seats in local councils and the top posts of provincial autonomous entities, from ward offices to cities and provinces.


Competition for tickets to each electorate got more and more intense as the GNP enjoyed more support from the voters than other parties. Rumors had it that somebody paid 100 million won ($104,000) to earn the ticket for a seat in a provincial council, 300 million won for a metropolitan city council and 500 million won for city mayoralty.


`Eye of Typhoon'


The outburst of such scandals came out of those applicants' tenacious passion. Some of those who gave money in kickbacks to influential party post-holders turned around to disclose their illicit dealings when their efforts turned sour. One identified only by her surname, Park, allegedly gave money to Rep. Park's wife to run for the top post of the Chung-gu Ward Office in Seoul, formerly held by her late husband. Han, whose given name was also not publicized, gave money to Rep. Kim's wife to earn the party's ticket to run for the Socho-gu Ward Office. They even threatened to disclose their illegal contributions as they were unlikely to get the chance.


For fear of the expected bad impact of the corruption scandals ahead of the elections, the GNP was quick to charge those involved with bribery allegations and make an open apology. Its approval rating plunged in recent months due to some unsavory events, such as a lawmaker's sexual harassment of a female newspaper reporter in February.


But, as many assume, backdoor dealings regarding candidate nomination do not seem to be only the GNP's problem. And the revelations to follow in the coming days could turn out to be even more explosive.

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04-14-2006 17:55

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