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On Monday, opposition party members, discussing the prosecution¡¯s announcement of the results of investigations into allegations of corruption among President Roh Moo-hyun¡¯s aides, said that the president was directly involved in the cases. They also urged an investigation of the president and called for him to confess.
Park Jin, the spokesman for the Grand National Party (GNP), said that what the investigators have found is nothing more than the tip of the iceberg as far as corruption is concerned, and that it was important enough to warrant a decision by the president ¡°as to his political future.¡± He also said that the direct investigation of the president was required in order to get to the bottom of the slew of charges, including the scandal involving the Sun and Moon group.
Park called for the president, now facing a situation in which he cannot carry out his duties as normal, to live up to his political and legal responsibilities and confess before a special investigation is initiated.
Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) spokesman Kim Young-hwan said he heard that the dirty money was delivered in front of the president, and that things look very murky. He then criticized Roh for not confessing to witnessing the transfer of illegal monies -- despite giving countless press conferences on the subject -- and called for him to confess.
As of late Monday afternoon, Cheong Wa Dae still had not revealed its position on the investigation results, as it was still in the process of analyzing the findings.
Lee Gwang-jae, the former Cheong Wa Dae information section chief, said that President Roh, on his way to another scheduled place during his election campaign, spent about 20 minutes in the place where W100 million had been received from the Sun and Moon group. He had left before the 10 checks for W10 million each were received, and therefore could not have known about the transfer, Lee said.
(Heo Yong-beom, heo@chosun.com )
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