Ahn’s associate claims Saenuri official pressed the popular professor to give up presidential ambition


A ruling party official threatened to disclose bribery and an extramarital affair controversy surrounding professor Ahn Cheol-soo if he runs in the presidential election, Ahn’s aide said Thursday,

The bombshell allegation by Geum Tae-seop, a lawyer and advisor to Ahn, threw the ruling Saenuri Party into commotion prompting it to rush to its defense.

Despite the party’s immediate denial, the revelation is likely to deal a blow to the Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Park Geun-hye and her campaign centered on reform and transparency.

In a news conference, Geum claimed that Jeong Joon-gil, a former prosecutor and member of Saenuri’s communications team, called him on Tuesday and threatened to leak Ahn’s alleged bribery and affairs with a woman if he joins the presidential race.

Ahn, though yet to officially decide whether to run in the December election, leads polls among potential candidates.

“Such an act by the Saenuri Party ahead of the presidential election is beyond imaginable. This is a clear challenge against the democracy and a threat against the people who long for a new change,” Geum said, accompanied by fellow associates of Ahn, including Democratic United Party lawmaker Song Ho-chang.

Thrown off the loop, the Saenuri Party immediately looked into the matter as Jeong flatly denied the allegation.

“I just told him that Ahn should be well prepared against many suspicions. I sought his understanding that as a public relations official of the Saenuri I will have to speak about them,” Jeong said at an emergency press conference soon afterward.

“It is extremely regretful that (Geum) would blow this up as if there is some sort of an organization behind me, or (say) that there was political surveillance,” Jeong said.

Park Geun-hye dismissed Geum's claim as groundless. “He is not in a position capable of making such a threat and put such a pressure. I can’t understand this at all,” she told reporters while attending the opening of Gwangju Biennale.

Jeong, who was named to the PR post just last week, offered to resign over the controversy and is considering taking legal action against Geum.

The Saenuri Party also held an emergency meeting of the communications team to discuss countermeasures.

“We would like to ask back whether Ahn, who has started to face questions of his quality by the media, is using the personal conversation with a friend politically,” Saenuri spokesman Lee Sang-il said.

Meanwhile, observers suggested the strapping announcement by Ahn’s side may signal that he has reached a decision to join the presidential race.

Ahn has been a close second to Park in various popularity polls for the past several months despite his hesitancy to formally enter politics.

They ranged from questionable investment and home purchases in the past to his drinking habits.

According to Geum, Jeong threatened to expose an allegation that Ahn bribed a Korea Development Bank manager in 1999 for investment, and that he was “having an adulterous relationship” with a woman in her thirties with a musical background.

“After checking with Ahn, all of these allegations have been confirmed to be completely untrue,” Geum said.

Geum also raised suspicion that the latest series of questions and rumors about the software mogul-turned professor may have been carefully orchestrated by the authorities.

“Based on recent circumstances, it is seriously suspected that the authorities are conducting an organized background check (on Ahn) and that the information is being passed over to the Saenuri Party,” Geum said.

The main opposition Democratic United Party was quick to use the claim to attack the Saenuri Party, indicating that it could seek to launch a parliamentary probe into the case and run an in-house fact-finding committee.

The DUP’s presidential contenders pressured the ruling party’s presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye to “unearth the truth behind it,” underscoring that she may have to take responsibility should the claim prove to be true.

“If it is true, it is like we are seeing the revival of the dictatorship and the reign of terror,” said Yun Kwan-seok, spokesperson for the DUP’s leading contender Rep. Moon Jae-in, referring to the period from the 1960s to 1980s when general-turned-presidents ruled the country.

“Rep. Park should ascertain the truth and if that turns out to be true, she may have to take responsibility for that.”

Kim Yoo-jung, spokesperson for Sohn Hak-kyu, called for the ruling party’s immediate apology.

“If it is true, it is what makes us all appalled. In addition to the Saenuri Party going backwards in time, it seems to use the shameful (political) method of threatening somebody,” she said.

Jeon Hyeon-hee, spokesperson for Kim Doo-kwan, said that the alleged threat to Ahn reflects the Saenuri Party’s fear about the possible defeat in the upcoming presidential election.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)


<관련 한글 기사>

"새누리당 안철수 협박, 불출마 종용"


새누리당 정준길 공보위원이 "뇌 물과 여자문제를 폭로하겠다"며 서울대 안철수 융합과학기술대학원장측을 협박하고 불출마를 종용했다는 주장이 6일 제기돼 대선정국에서 파문이 예상된다.

그러나 정 공보위원은 이를 즉각 부인하며 "친구 사이의 대화를 협박으로 과장했다"고 반박하고 나서면서 양측간 정치적 공방으로 흐를 조짐도 감지되고 있다.

안 원장측 금태섭 변호사는 이날 프레스센터에서 긴급 기자회견을 갖고 "지난 4 일 오전 7시57분께 정준길 공보위원의 전화를 받았다"며 "(안 원장이 대선에 출마할 경우) 뇌물과 여자문제를 폭로하겠다며 대선 불출마를 종용했다"고 폭로했다.

그는 "대선을 앞두고 새누리당이 이렇게 하는 것은 차마 상상하기 어려운 일로, 민주주의에 대한 명백한 도전이자 새로운 변화를 바라는 국민에 대한 협박"이라며 "중대한 범죄행위이자 우리 국민의 변화 열망을 구시대의 낡은 방식으로 짓밟은 행위 "라고 비판했다.

그는 "안 원장에게 확인한 결과 (협박 내용은) 사실이 아니다. 한치의 의혹도 있을 수 없다"라며 "새누리당 대선기획단은 범죄 사실에 대해 사전에 알고 있었는지 공식적으로 밝혀야 한다"고 말했다.

금 변호사는 정 위원이 전화를 통해 폭로하겠다고 말한 내용에 대해 "안랩 설립 초창기인 1999년 산업은행으로부터 투자를 받은 것과 관련, 투자팀장인 강모씨에게 주식 뇌물을 공여했다는 것과 안 원장이 목동에 거주하는 음대 출신의 30대 여성과 최근까지 사귀고 있었다는 것이었다"고 소개했다.

그는 "정 위원은 구체적 근거는 말하지 않은 채 `우리가 조사해 다 알고 있다.

이걸 터뜨릴 것이기에 (안 원장이) 대선에 나오면 죽는다'고 말하면서 `안 원장에게 사실을 전하고 불출마하라'고 여러차례에 걸쳐 협박했다"고 주장했다.

그는 또 "언론에 보도된 안 원장에 대한 사찰 논란과 더불어 `우리가 조사해 다 알고 있다'는 정 위원의 언동에 비춰볼 때 정보기관 또는 사정기관의 조직적 뒷조사 가 이뤄지고, 그 내용이 새누리당에 전달되고 있지 않는가 하는 강한 의심이 든다"며 불법 사찰 의혹을 제기했다.

그러면서 "근거없는 유언비어의 근원지와 조직적 유포에 대한 제보가 속속 이어 지고 있는 것도 사실"이라고 주장했다.

이에 대해 정 위원은 곧바로 기자회견을 열어 금 변호사의 주장에 대해 "친구사이의 대화를 두고 협박이다, 불출마 종용이라고 얘기하는 것은 너무한 것이고 과장된 얘기"라고 반박했다.

그는 "일개 공보위원에 불과한 제가 안 원장의 불출마를 종용하거나 협박할 지위에 있지도 않다"며 "객관적인 검증을 통해 훌륭한 대통령이 임명돼야 한다는 생각 에서 시중에서 들은 몇 가지 얘기를 했는데 마치 뒤에 비호세력이나 조직이 있고 정 치사찰을 한 것처럼 과대포장한 것은 상당히 유감"이라고 말했다.

그러면서 "사실을 과장하고, 있지 않은 부분까지 얘기하는 것이 과연 안 원장이 바라는 정치인지, 또 금 변호사의 기자회견을 안 원장이 승락하고 동의했는지 되묻고 싶다"고 덧붙였다.