Roh Moo Hyun Apologizes for Taking Money in Bribery Scandal

There is now a silver lining to the growing bribery scandal that threatens to tarnish OFK favorite Park Jin. It has also brought some richly deserved shame to leftist former president Roh Moo Hyun, a man who often seemed more like North Korea’s paymaster in Seoul than the leader of South Korea. How much shame, you ask? They’re putting a two-story-high screen around his house.

Much of the money was allegedly paid to Roh’s family and relatives, including his wife and son:

The ex-president’s brother has been arrested on charges of receiving bribes. The Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office suspects that Park provided some $5 million to Yeon through a bank account in Hong Kong in February of last year. The transaction allegedly took place only a few days before Roh’s term ended. Prosecutors have been investigating whether the money actually went to the former president and his family. “I visited Park because I wanted to learn how you can succeed in an overseas business,” Roh Gun-ho said. “I never used even 10 won of Park’s money. [Joongang Ilbo]

Despite early denials that Roh had received any of the money, Roh subsequently admitted asking for and receiving money from businessman Park Yeon-Cha:

“I want to make public something in advance,” Roh wrote. “Right now, Chung Sang-moon, former Blue House secretary, is being questioned on charges of receiving money from Park. I am concerned that Chung might have testified that he had actually done so. The accusation should be directed toward us, not Chung.

“My home made the request, received money and used it,” the former president confessed. “We have done so because we still had outstanding debts.

Roh wrote that he will cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation and testify concerning details. “I will face legal action in accordance with the case. I apologize again,” he wrote.

Following Roh’s statement, prosecutors began mulling when to summon the former president. Because of the statement, “it becomes inevitable for us to question him directly,” said a source at the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office. [Joongang Ilbo]

The leftist Hankyoreh is at a loss to react. Its assertions of partisanship fall flat, given that the scandal has touched Park, one of the sitting president’s closest confidants.

For seasoned Korea watchers, presidential corruption scandals have all the zing and novelty of Kennedys driving drunk. This falls short of my hope for the exposure of the North Korean spy ring that was suspected to have penetrated the South Korean government — assuming the evidence still exists — but even so, I wouldn’t want someone as odious as Roh to be the only Korean ex-president not to have his legacy tainted by a corruption scandal. If abetting mass murder isn’t enough to earn you disrepute on the South Korean street, I’ll settle for this for the time being.

Roh, a former human rights lawyer, somehow managed to leave office with a net worth of almost a million dollars. I had no idea that public service was so profitable.