By Yun Suh-young
The ruling Saenuri Party is making all-out efforts to lay bare the truth about the recent leak of its party membership list.
The prosecution requested an arrest warrant for a party employee, surnamed Lee, who is accused of handing the personal information of 2.2 million members to a text messaging service company in exchange for 4 million won.
Lee may face charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
The information includes names, addresses and telephone numbers of the Saenuri Party members.
The leak is worrying party members because if the information falls into the hands of the opposition party it may affect the results of the upcoming presidential election. The incident is presumed to have occurred between January and March ahead of the April 11 National Assembly elections, causing suspicion that it might have influenced the poll.
Immediately after the case was discovered, the party made a public apology.
“The Saenuri Party deeply apologizes to party members and the people for the leak of the membership list,” the party said through a press release.
“We are conducting an internal investigation into the case and will take all possible measures to prevent damage to party members. We will also fully cooperate with the prosecution.”
The party’s fact-finding committee began its own investigation into the case and will look into the nine party organization committee members who are in charge of managing the membership list. The nine have access to the computer server storing the information.
The committee will also examine if there were any accomplices within the party since Lee was not in a position to access the information at the time.
The party’s Secretary-General Rep. Seo Byung-soo said during a press conference Friday at its Yeouido headquarters that he “deeply regretted not being able to manage the list properly.”
“We will take stern measures against the perpetrator and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. We will limit access to the computer server to only one person,” he said.
Lee is also facing separate charges of bribery in connection with the law on mergers and acquisitions of broadcasters.