It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

SHOULD ROH MOO-HYUN APOLOGIZE FOR FUND-RAISING SCANDALS? Some certainly seem to think that this would be a politically expedient choice.

"It is an extremely simple matter," said political science Prof. Kim Young-il of Sungkyunkwan University. "All Roh has to do to escape impeachment and national chaos is to apologize for violating the law, as was ruled by the constitutional organization (National Election Commission), and it is exactly what the public wants.

"What the president is misinterpreting is that he should be apologizing to the people, not to the opposition parties, which he is refusing to do. Roh must admit to the fact that he has made many mistakes in his remarks, and apologize in order to take ethical responsibility."

Recent surveys show the majority of South Koreans are against the impeachment but agree Roh needs to apologize officially for his breach of law.

So why not do it? Well, there is the matter of that pesky promise:

Roh on Dec. 14 confidently told the country he would step down if his illegal campaign funds during the 2002 presidential election campaign exceeded 10 percent of those of the GNP.

The prosecution this week revealed its numbers. Roh's campaign took in about 11.4 billion won compared to the Grand National Party's 82.3, prosecutors revealed.

Maybe Roh just wants to be impeached.