Court Didn’t Buy the Excuse that Cash Envelopes Were Conventional

As prosecutors investigate the envelopes of cash that were distributed in connection with the Democratic Party of Korea’s convention in 2021, the cash envelopes in the Grand National Party (currently the People Power Party) convention in 2008 have newly drawn attention, for the two cases are similar in several ways.

Both cases occurred during the election for party representative. The charges were also the same: “crimes of buying-off and interests-inducement in intraparty competitive election of party representative” stated in Article 50 of the Political Party Act.

At the time of the Grand National Party convention, former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae (pictured), a candidate for party leader, was trailing far behind in the polls. He could only be elected if he obtained support from an overwhelming majority on the day of the convention. In the Democratic Party of Korea’s convention, the race for party leader was so close that the margin between the votes earned by Song Young-gil (first place) and Hong Young-pyo (second place) was only 0.59%.

In the case of the Democratic Party, the investigation began two years after the convention, while prosecutors launched an investigation into the Grand National Party four years after the convention.

The investigation into the cash envelopes in the Grand National Party began with an exposé by Koh Seung-duk, a lawmaker at the time. The prosecutors charged Park Hee-tae for handing former lawmaker Koh three envelopes holding a million won each. However, in the latest case, prosecutors launched an investigation after they obtained a recording from the cell phone of former Deputy Secretary-General Lee Jung-geun, who was arrested for another case.

The court ruling in the previous case tells us a great deal about the latest case as well. During the trial, Park argued that providing expenses for transportation and meals to the head of the party member council was “conventional” and that he had no intention to influence the decisions of superdelegates. He also claimed that the party primary had a lower level of importance than national elections that are subject to the Public Official Election Act, such as the presidential and parliamentary elections, and so even if he had broken the law, he was less liable to be punished. However, in the first trial, the judges of the Seoul Central District Court did not accept his argument about the common practice and found Park guilty and sentenced him to eight months in prison, with a two-year stay of execution in 2012.

The judge explained that the articles of the Political Party Act were created to ensure a candidate be elected through a fair and clean election and described that the Political Party Act particularly expressed a strong determination to end irregularities related to the election for party representative. The judge also said, “They (cash envelopes) are very likely to be illegal and subject to criticism for they can undermine the very roots of representative democracy and party democracy.”

The judges in the second trial made the same decision. The bench in the Seoul High Court explained that a party representative not only exerted strong influence in the party, but that he also had considerable influence over the decision-making in the National Assembly through lawmakers. The judge said, “Since the position was granted tangible and intangible authority throughout state administration, there is an obligation to strive for a stricter and fairer election.” The final decision by the Supreme Court supported the first two rulings.