Legacy Holds Back Park
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The negative legacy of a late religious leader, once a close acquaintance of presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party (GNP), haunted the party's in-house hearing Thursday.
Panelists doggedly held onto the allegations of the late Choi Tae-min during the three-hour session and the former party chairwoman stubbornly stood by him showing no sign of welling distrust.
Park, 55, defended her position, saying that if anything was wrong with Choi, it would have been disclosed by administration after her father, the late President Park Chung-hee, was assassinated in October 1979.
As there was no evidence supporting the cases, she said she would not consider the late Choi corrupt or greedy.
Fifteen panel members disagreed with Park and reminded her of the wrongdoings Choi had allegedly done during his lifetime.
``According to our in-house committee's investigation, Choi had been involved in a variety of corruption cases. Choi received kickbacks from business people after he promised them the use of his network with political power to help their business grow. He also received bribes from military officers for promotion,'' Kim Myung-gon, a lawyer and one of panel members, said.
Choi had been involved in as many as 40 corruption cases during his lifetime, and he had been married six times and had seven different names, Kim said.
After being informed of Choi's corruptive activities, the late President Park had ordered the nation's intelligence agency to conduct investigation into the religious leader.
According to panelists, the intelligence team found Choi was involved in several corruption cases and suggested the President send him to jail. The late President did not follow the suggestion.
``My conclusion is that the reason the late Park had not sent him to prison was because his presidency would have been threatened because his daughter was close to Choi,'' Kim explained.
The former party chairwoman replied, ``I do not know of it.''
Presidential contender Park said she thought suspicions over Choi were cleared after the late President interrogated him in person in front of her and the chief of the intelligence agency.
The hearing revealed her mindset of a military coup in May 1961 through which her father had taken power.
Park characterized the coup as a revolution, which was launched to save the country in turmoil.
She said she is truly sorry for the victims and their family members who had fought for democracy and suffered under her father's authoritarian rule.
``I think we had better leave the interpretation of my father's rule in the hands of historians and experts,'' she said. ``In this sense, I disagree that the country needs the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to define what the history meant to us living now because interpretation of history tends to change as time goes by."