By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

The National Assembly on Monday decided to hold a hearing from Feb. 10 to 12 to look into illegal campaign fundraising in the run-up to the 2002 presidential race.

The Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee voted 9 to 2 to pass the bill for the three-day hearing, where ruling and opposition parties would check each other’s illegal fundraising activities. Chough Soon-hyung, chairman of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), earlier in the day indicated that President Roh Moo-hyun might be called in as witness.

In the meantime, state prosecutors have also embarked on another part of the fundraising scandals allegedly involving President Roh and Rep. Chung Dong-young, the pro-government Uri Party’s leader, who are suspected of having used illegal political funds during the MDP presidential primaries in early 2002.

Involving both the Roh camp and his archrival Lee Hoi-chang’s, the fundraising scandals have been investigated by prosecutors for the past couple of months. But, the Grand National Party (GNP) and the MDP _ the two major opposition parties _ have incessantly criticized the prosecution for unfairly concentrating on the GNP.

The Uri Party, backing President Roh, strongly objected to the hearing arguing the cases should be left in the hands of the state prosecution, but was overpowered by the GNP-MDP alliance in the floor vote.

Officials from the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Financial Supervisory Service and the National Tax Service will be forced to present themselves at the hearing to be held for the first time since the launch of the Roh administration about a year ago. The opposition parties plan to call in some 60 people to the hearing, including Roh’s closest aides Ahn Hee-jung, Lee Kwang-jae and Choi Do-sul. The ruling camp, for its part, wanted to summon the former GNP candidate Lee Hoi-chang and his top aide Seo Jung-woo.

The hearing is expected to turn into a fierce battleground as the rival camps are in a desperate competition ahead of the April 15 general elections. The Uri Party criticized the hearing for being too focused on the Roh camp.

Upset by the GNP’s incessant offensives against him over his campaign funds, President Roh declared last month he would quit his job, if it is proven that the illegal funds his camp raised were more than one-tenth of those taken by the GNP.

According to the prosecution’s investigation so far, the GNP raised some 50 billion won from the nation’s four largest business conglomerates, while Roh’s fundraising team was found to have accepted about 840 million won. Both rivals argue that the sum of money taken by the other side will eventually far exceed the amounts so far uncovered.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr