It has almost been two months since the prosecution arrested big shot "broker" Yun Sangnim. At the time, prosecutors declared him the biggest illegal lobbyist in all of Korean history and proudly pledged to uproot the elements within politics and officialdom that have been protecting him. The results of the investigation, however, are miserable. You can smell the stench all over the place, so it is frustrating that investigators have failed to find much in the way of real answers.
Yun's vast network of personal connections, as revealed in the course of the investigation, leaves you dumbfounded. Large numbers of some of the more powerful members of our society were entangled with Yun in relationships that involved golf and money. Sitting judges gave him tens of millions of Won, and deputy national police commissioner Choi Kwang Sik once wired him W20 million. It is strange enough that Yun held out his hand to judges and a high-ranking police official saying he needed money, but it is also hard for a normal person to understand how they would so readily lend him that much cash and then not do anything when he failed to repay them. Everything looks suspicious.
There are always little intricacies involved in cases that make no sense. The prosecution's duty is to dig deep and satisfy curiosity about what happened, but all it is doing is complaining, saying that it has been hard to investigate when Yun refuses to open his mouth. You feel sorry for prosecutors since the "spear" they hold is not strong enough to pierce his "shield." The situation is even such that you year people suggesting that maybe the case was blown out of proportion from the start. This is an issue of "honor" and "pride," which the prosecution always likes to boast about, and this time around it risks having that honor reduced to nothing. We call on the prosecution to work hard on this case.
The Hankyoreh, 19 January 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Yun Sangnim Investigation, Frustrating As Ever |
