Chapter 291
Hyunwoo was so shocked to hear the news that he was just absent-minded. Why would Munsik commit suicide when he was doing alright until yesterday?
Of course, he had some reasons.
His company was suffering continuing losses in communications and oil refinery, which were the mainstays of Singyoung. As the main culprit of the losses was its lack of competitiveness, there was no possibility that it could catch up with its rivals.
To make matters worse, he was under severe pressure because of the prosecutors’ investigation of his involvement in the malpractices of the resources diplomacy. After all, he couldn’t overcome such pressure and chose to end his life.
And several days later, there was an article about the more specific reason for Munsik’s suicide.
In short, his suicide was like a hunter killing a dog after hunting.
Munsik was Korea’s most notorious honey bee. He grew his company through lobbying rather than developing its technology.
When the problems surrounding him became serious, those politicians who backed him up until then began to desert him. He called several politicians for help, but it was all in vain.
The prosecutor’s office analyzed three days of his phone records before his suicide. According to the prosecutor’s office, he continued to contact political big shots right before he committed suicide.
But there were none he succeeded in contacting. Most of them didn’t answer his call. In short, they clearly expressed their intention that they were not willing to help him.
That was the biggest factor that drove Munsik into taking his own life.
But Munsik left behind a detailed memo in which he wrote down the names of politicians who got political funds and kickbacks from him
The prosecutor’s office focused on uncovering the political figures who were Munsik lobbying targets. They all received political funds from Munsik.
As expected, there were many influential politicians on the list. Among them was the incumbent prime minister and a governor who was formerly a National Assemblyman.
Former strongman of the ruling party, Chulmo Kim, and his replacement Jungmin Hwang were also included on the list.
But there was something strange happening.
The prosecutor’s office was dragging its feet on the investigation. They didn’t want to touch only ruling party members but also opposition lawmakers.
The reason was pretty clear, which even the people knew.
“Every politician received his kickbacks.”
“Who is going to investigate them unless the prosecutor is ready to stick his neck out?”
The prosecutor’s office continued to investigate some of the named politicians but didn’t show any active determination to continue the investigation. They just dragged their feet.
Hyunwoo felt that the investigation should not stop like that. He thought it was a golden opportunity to drive out the corrupt politicians on this occasion.
He could not sit idle. He had to find any excuse to make the investigation go on.
As he was such a layman in politics, Hyunwoo could not figure out what to do.
After he agonized about it for several days, he called congressman Wonju Ha.
“Mr. Ha, we can’t afford to let this golden opportunity slip like this, can we? What can I do to winnow out these corrupt politicians?”
Ha didn’t give any good answer.
In fact, Ha was trying his best in the National Assembly. Despite many fellow lawmakers’ objections, he strongly called for a thorough investigation of the Munsik Choi list.
Some young lawmakers supported him.
But they were a minority, compared with the majority opposing them. Not only Chulmo Kim and Jungmin Hwang but also other powerful politicians tried to minimize and cover up the Choi incident. The president also supported their efforts.
Some opposing strongmen threw their support behind the corrupt politicians. Though these politicians of the ruling and opposition parties fought against each other in the past, they expressed one voice when it came to the Choi incident.
No matter how hard Mr. Ha tried to defeat their efforts, there was no chance of his fighting against such odds.
But there was nothing Hyunwoo could help him. Hyunwoo heard politicians and businessmen had inseparable ties, and now he realized that nobody could even interfere with them.
In the meantime, Chulmo Kim kept a low profile.
Since the sex scandal involving him and the tragic woman Yonji Cho who committed suicide, he barely kept his seat in the National Assembly. This time, however, the resource diplomacy scandal was sweeping across the country.
If he was entangled in another controversial issue, that would mean the end of his political life.
Then, Jungmin Hwang came to see him.
Actually, he had bad feelings about Hwang because the latter replaced him as the strongman of the ruling party while he was losing his power.
But he couldn’t refuse Hwang’s offer to meet.
“Haha, come on in!”
“Thanks for welcoming me like this.”
“It’s a difficult time for all of us. We should help each other.”
Both of them instantly found a kindred spirit in each other. They worked together to avoid the typhoon of the resource diplomacy scandal.
After all, they found the solution.
The key to the solution was held by Mr. Wonju Ha.
If he kept silent on the scandal, they could get away with it successfully.
So, they decided to propose a compromise.
Ha could not refuse it. If he continued to refuse it, he would have to fight with all other politicians except for him.
“I’ve come to see you after long hesitation, but I think I have made the right decision to come here,” said Hwang.
“Yea, today’s meeting was a very meaningful one.”
Both shook hands with a satisfied smile.
But Hwang had a curious expression.
“By the way, I just have no idea why he badly wanted a thorough investigation of the resources diplomacy scandal. He was not such a politician anyway, wasn’t he?”
“Yea, I felt the same way. I thought he was a sitting duck so far, but we had better watch him closely from now on.”
Several days later, Hyunwoo got a call from Mr. Ha while he was reviewing business documents at the KOVE office.
“They sent me a proposal.”
Sparkling his eyes, Hyunwoo asked, “What kind of proposal is it?”
“They proposed that we wrap up this case at an appropriate level.”
“Appropriate level?”
“Too obvious is their intention. After they make a scapegoat of several politicians, other politicians get away with this.”
That’s not what Hyunwoo was hoping for. After all, it was like excluding corrupt political big shots while punishing only political pyramids.
Hyunwoo believed that even if only a couple of politicians are to be punished, they should be political heavyweights.
“Mr. Ha, we won’t have a good opportunity like this. We shouldn’t give it a pass. We have to weed out the corrupt political big shots,” said Hyunwoo.
“That’s what I want, but it’s impossible in reality. They have overwhelming political power. If you really try to go after them, you might achieve little.”
Hyunwoo could not insist anymore.
“What do you think is the appropriate level then?”
“I’m sure that those politicians including the Prime Minister and the governor whose corruption was clearly revealed with specific evidence will lose their power. No matter how strong they are, it’s inevitable that they will disappear from the political scene soon...”
Ha mentioned the size of those politicians who might be sacrificed by the resources diplomacy scandal. They were five political giants whose names were well known, eight influential politicians, three vice minister-level officials, and 16 high-ranking government officials.
Among the politicians were ruling and opposition party members.
In conclusion, Ha intended to save all the big political shots unless they were explicitly implicated in the scandal.
What was more regrettable was that Chulmo Kim and Jungmin Hwang, who could be called the core of corrupt politics, were not included in Ha’s punishment list. It seemed both of them could survive the political blacklist drawn by Ha.
But Ha said that was an inevitable decision.
“Even the president protects them. They are beyond my control.”
Hyunwoo swallowed a sigh and said, “I understand that’s inevitable. But someday they should be expelled from the National Assembly. I think we had better draw a blacklist of such politicians in preparation for that. Though I don’t have anything to help on my part, I would like to play a role in the campaign to remove corrupt politicians.”
“Blacklist? That’s very risky thinking. If the list is leaked, you’re in big, big trouble.”
“That’s a list only you and I know. Actually, I’ve made that list on my own. You can give me the names to be included there.”
“Got it. See you one of these days when you’re available.”
“Sure. I’ll see you within several days.”
“You don’t need to hurry. They are now closely watching me. So, you had better wait until the dust settles.”
Hyunwoo thought it was a close call. He felt he was acting recklessly out of his overwhelming impatience to go after corrupt politicians.
Come to think of it, it was a very delicate situation at the moment.
If they got wind of his collaboration with Ha, both Hyunwoo and Ha would be in a very difficult situation.
He felt he should keep in mind that even the president was on their side.
“Got it. Please give me a call then when you’re ready. I’ll wait until then”
Hyunwoo hung up the phone.
***
Chumo Kim was looking at a newspaper leisurely.
He had a call from someone on his mobile phone. It was Jungmin Hwang’s call. Though he didn’t welcome it, he answered the phone.
But Hwang brought him some surprising news.
“Mr. Kim, I found out the reason.”
“Reason? Reason for what?”
“The reason why Mr. Ha is desperately going after us in connection with the resource diplomacy scandal.”
“Really? What is that?”
Chulmo asked casually. In fact, that was not an important issue for him.
What really mattered to him was to avoid the political typhoon at the moment and seize the chance to make a political comeback.
Hearing his explanation, however, he got interested in it.
“Hyunwoo Jang, the head of KOVE DREAM, is behind Mr. Ha.”
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