Corruption scandal spreads in South Korea

RICHARD LLOYD PARRY

Tokyo

When Roh Tae-woo, the former president of South Korea, appeared on television last week to apologise for hoarding 500bn won (pounds 400m), he was less than convincing. In a display of contrite grief, Mr Roh gulped and wiped his eyes - suspiciously void of tears. He declared himself "ready to accept any judgement and any punishment, even stoning" - but nobody believed that last bit.

For Koreans, however, one part of his address did ring true. "Such political funds are wrong," conceded Mr Roh, "and this is not an excuse, but they are an age-old part of our political culture."

Yesterday, Mr Roh received proof that his grovelling had failed when he became the first former Korean president to be formally questioned by public prosecutors and 63 per cent of Koreans polled believe he should be arrested. But the scandal is spreading, and threatening to implicate politicians on all sides, including the current president, Kim Young- sam. "If this is not handled properly," Mr Kim said this week, "the ruling and opposition camps will come down together."

The scandal goes deep, and derives much of its destabilising potential from Mr Roh's unique status in Korean politics, as a former member of a military autocracy who successfully reinvented himself as president of a democratic republic. In 1987, the country was on the verge of crisis as opposition mounted towards Mr Roh's predecessor, the hated General Chun Doo-hwan. The tumult was silenced by Mr Roh, who demanded direct presidential elections and a restoration of civil liberties. General Chun conceded, the riots fizzled out, and Mr Rohwon a decisive victory.

There was little doubt that Mr Roh's election owed a lot to enormous illicit spending. butmany in Korea were grateful for a gentler transition into democracy than that offered by Mr Roh's radical opponents. The economy prospered and in 1993 the baton of power was handed smoothly on, with the election of Kim Young-sam, a former civilian dissident who had joined Mr Roh's Democratic Liberal Party (DLP).

Mr Kim's election appeared to represent a decisive break with the military past and he quickly staked his reputation on rooting out what he calls "the Korean disease" of political corruption.Crucially, he made it illegal to keep falsely-named bank accounts, the means by which bribery funds, including that admitted to by Mr Roh, were concealed. He has alsopromised a rigorous and impartial investigation of his former mentor.

But it is loaded with risks. After humiliating losses in local elections, and a year of disasters like the collapse of a Seoul department store, the President's popularity is at an all time low. An battle with his political father, Mr Roh, could rob him of right-wing support and erase the DLP's small majority.

Even more threatening is the growing conviction that the President must have benefited from the illegal fund. In the months before stepping down, Mr Roh appears to have gone on a political spending spree, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with potential successors. The leading opposition leader, Kim Dae-jung, has admitted receiving 2bn won in 1992, and called on the President to own up to the same.

On this, Mr Kim has been vague, acknowledging that while his party may have accepted cash, he knew nothing of it. But the scandal seems to show that the clean hands president could not have got where he is without corruption, and could not have fought corruption without getting where he is.