Tracing the ill-gotten hidden wealth of former President Chun Doo-hwan and forcing him to pay his massive court-ordered fines has emerged as a hot political issue since President Park Geun-hye pledged to tackle the problem.
Chun, who took power in 1980 through a military coup, accumulated wealth illegally during his seven-year rule by taking bribes from big business groups. In 1997, he was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay 220 billion won ($193 million) in fines. But he has thus far paid only a quarter of the total, leaving some 167 billion won in arrears.
Calls for government action on Chun have risen recently as the statute of limitations for the fines is to expire in October. The main opposition Democratic Party stepped up pressure on Park to clarify her stance on the issue.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Park said that it was nonsensical to hold the new government responsible for the failure to force Chun to pay the fines because the problem has existed for more than 10 years. She asked what past governments had done about it.
But her remarks triggered a blame game between the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition party. Lawmakers of the Democratic Party noted that the ruling party blocked their legislative efforts to go after Chun.
Now, the two parties should stop pointing fingers and pool their wisdom to tackle the issue. Collecting the unpaid fines from Chun is harder than it sounds because it involves legal problems.
For instance, a bill submitted by opposition lawmakers proposes to empower the government to slap fines on Chun’s children if they fail to prove that the wealth they own is of their own making.
But this proposal, according to Saenuri lawmakers, goes against the Constitution which bans guilt-by-association.
Legal obstacles, however, won’t be insurmountable if lawmakers of the two parties work together. They need to find a way to bypass them.
Recently, a potentially decisive clue to trace Chun’s concealed wealth was provided by an independent online news organization that has been chasing high-profile Koreans who set up paper companies in tax havens.
The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism has found that Chun’s eldest son had established a ghost company in the British Virgin Islands in 2004. He is suspected of having tried to hide his father’s slush funds.
