hankyoreh

By Hwang Chun-hwa, staff writer
A document uncovered on May 16 makes it clear who and what the public ethics division of the Prime Minister’s Office was created for. The division is at the center of an extensive network of illegal surveillance of civilians. Since the scandal popped off in March, the Blue House and President Lee Myung-bak have denied involvement. It is now coming to appear that the public ethics department may have existed to act on behalf of President Lee.
The document is called “Command System for the Public Ethics Office’s Execution of Duties” and provides information about the office’s operation and reporting system. What it does not indicate is just who was the first to direct what amounted to an organization to protect the “VIP,” President Lee Myung-bak.
The document presents Lee himself as the figure who pushed for the office’s establishment. After a report from the office of the Blue House senior secretary for civil affairs on the candlelight rallies against US beef imports in May 2008, an angered Lee demanded reports on “who paid for ten thousand candles and who orchestrated things.” The document also said the office was established in July 2008 to “oversee the candlelight rallies.”
Former Chief of Staff Yim Tae-hee, 56, addressed the background of the office’s establishment in an April talk with a columnist for the webzine ToFor. “The public enterprise presidents [who took part in the rallies] were all appointees from the Roh Moo-hyun administration,” Yim explained. “And I think [former labor secretary] Lee Young-ho’s idea was to monitor those CEOs to get things in hand.”
Yim also said, “The inspection team [public ethics division] was created after an officer in the Prime Minister’s Office formally proposed establishing an organization, and once it was there Lee Young-ho’s team naturally wound up directing things.”
But the document’s references to the office’s operation undermine this “natural” account of things. According to its contents, the office’s reporting line was the product of careful planning. After weighing the pros and cons of having it report to the Prime Minister or senior secretary for civil affairs, the office opted for reports through a secret line. “In order to support the VIP’s smooth execution of state affairs . . . special commands are to be directed unofficial by a ‘presidential security organization’ with unalloyed loyalty to the VIP,” the report said. “Unofficial activities are also essential to prevent a ‘lame duck’ situation in the future.”
Prosecutors are now working to determine just who was behind the office’s establishment. Lee Young-ho previously offered himself as the “ringleader,” but prosecutors are looking farther up the line.
The special investigation team at the Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office, headed by Park Yun-hae, had Park Young-joon brought in for questioning at around 10 am Thursday morning as part of its investigation into allegations of civilian surveillance by the public ethics office and the destruction of evidence. Park, 52, a former deputy director for state affairs in the Prime Minister’s Office, who is currently under detention, was asked about the circumstances of the office’s establishment and its involvement in the evidence destruction.
When asked by journalists whether Park was part of the “unofficial line” at the Blue House, an official with prosecutors said, “We’re considering various possibilities in our investigation.
"We’re looking at a number of different issues here, including the establishment process for the public ethics office and the destruction of evidence," the official explained.
　
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