ED Election-meddling probe

Lay bare truth behind widening scandal

The prosecution is expanding its investigation into mounting allegations that the presidential office deeply interfered with last year's local elections to help President Moon Jae-in's longtime friend get elected as Ulsan mayor. On Friday, prosecutors searched the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) to secure evidence related to the election-meddling scandal.

The search was inevitable to confirm allegations that the ministry and KDI collaborated with Cheong Wa Dae in raising the chances of Moon's ally, Song Cheol-ho, winning the election against Ulsan's then-Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon affiliated with the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP). Song, who ran as the candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), came up with a campaign promise to build a public hospital in the southeastern city, while Kim pledged to build a hospital specializing in industrial accidents.

The ministry and the KDI face suspicions that they helped with Song's campaign with a preliminary feasibility study that concluded Kim's hospital plan was infeasible. The conclusion came just 16 days before the June 13 election, in which Kim lost to Song. The prosecution said it has secured evidence showing that Song discussed the public hospital issue with presidential secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae in 2017. This may imply that the presidential office mobilized the ministry and the think tank to create favorable conditions for Song.

Another issue at stake is whether Cheong Wa Dae also interfered with a primary to select the mayoral candidate of the ruling party. Circumstantial evidence demonstrates that the presidential office actively engaged in getting Song's rivals to drop out of the primary race to help Song become the sole candidate. Lim Dong-ho, a then-senior DPK member and Song's rival, backed up the election-meddling allegations by claiming that Cheong Wa Dae offered him the post of consul general in Kobe, Japan, in return for giving up his mayoral bid. Lim rejected the offer because he wanted the consul general post in Osaka instead.

Later Lim toned down his claim by saying that the offer was not an official proposal from the presidential office. But he admitted that he had discussed the matter with then-presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok.

Now the prosecution should dig deeper into the case to confirm if Cheong Wa Dae intervened in the election. If the allegations are found true, President Moon and his office cannot shirk moral and legal responsibility. Interfering in an election is a grave crime that undermines democracy.

Many previous governments were found to have meddled in elections to maintain their grip on power. Ousted former President Park Geun-hye was sentenced to two years in prison for making her office conduct a preliminary opinion poll to help her loyalists win the 2016 general elections. The country should no longer tolerate any interference in elections. The Moon administration should not repeat the same mistakes.