Familiar Scandal

South Korea's Roh faces prosecutors this week

John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:17 AM PDT, April 27, 2009

Like two predecessors, the former president is accused of corruption. Some point to a practice of the political party in power seeking to embarrass leaders of the party it replaced.

The onetime human rights lawyer and judge is the third South Korean president since 1995 to face a corruption probe after leaving office. He is suspected of soliciting $6 million in bribes from a shoemaking magnate that were allegedly paid to his wife and son.

Roh, 62, has acknowledged that his wife accepted $1 million from footwear manufacturer Park Yeon-cha but denied involvement in any influence-peddling. He has characterized the $5 million his son received from Park as an investment loan.
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So, his wife got the money for what, being a nice lady?

When I first read the article, I thought it said, "his wife accepted $1 million in footwear . . ."

How many pairs of shoes will one million dollars buy?
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Experts within South Korea say the general public has been dealt an emotional blow by the investigation into Roh. Chun Sang-chin, a sociology professor at Sogang University, said many voters believed Roh's campaign pledge that he was different from other politicians.

"People are really disappointed because they had believed that Mr. Roh was free of moral problems," he said. "But now people think that Roh is no longer different from the others."

Yet one presidential scholar calls the Roh probe a sign that South Korea is moving past an era of corrupt presidents. "All events involving presidents were kept inside a black box – no one had access to the dark side of Korean politics," said Hahm Sung Deuk, a professor of public administration at Korea University.