Thirty years ago today, October 19, 1995 (August 25, 1995, the Roh Tae-woo scandal shocked South Korea. Roh Tae-woo In October 1995, South Korean politics once again entered an eventful year. A secret fund scandal involving Roh Tae-woo has stirred up a stir across the country, with constant demonstrations and constant exposure. Even the Kim Young-sam regime, which has won the hearts of the people through anti-corruption and integrity, has fallen into a serious crisis. The incident started on October 19, when opposition Democratic Party member Park Ki-dong presented evidence at the National Assembly meeting that Roh Tae-woo used a pseudonym account to store secret funds at the Bank of Korea. He said that Roh Tae-woo had received huge amounts of political funds from several large domestic companies during his tenure as president, and there are still funds left. When the news came out, public opinion was in uproar, and the South Korean government immediately ordered the inspection agency to investigate the incident. During the investigation, Lee Hyun-woo, who had served as the chief of President Roh Tae-woo's Guard Office and the director of the Security Department, proved that the money deposited under a false name at the Bank of Shinhan was Roh Tae-woo's political funds. As a result, more than 100 billion won of secret funds were exposed one after another. Under such circumstances, Roh Tae-woo had no choice but to hold a press conference on October 27, admitting that he secretly raised 500 billion won during his tenure as president from 1988 to 1993.(about US$650 million) of secret political funds, and the remaining approximately 170 billion won are still kept in a bank account under a pseudonym. Although he cried bitterly, expressed his shame and said he was willing to accept any form of punishment, the citizens who were angry about this matter no longer believed his tears and demanded that he be arrested and brought to justice. After the scandal was made public, Kim Dae-jung, president of the National Assembly of New Politics, also disclosed an equally shocking piece of news that day. He said that Roh Tae-woo gave him US$260,000 in political funds during the 1992 presidential election, and he also had reliable intelligence that proved that Roh Tae-woo also gave huge amounts of political funds to current President Kim Young-sam at that time. Kim Yun-hwan, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party, believed that Roh Tae-woo would provide Kim Young-sam with the huge amount of money needed for the election. As the investigation deepened, Democratic Party congressman Park Ki-dong, who first exposed the scandal, disclosed that Roh Tae-woo also provided huge amounts of political funds to another presidential candidate, Liberal Democratic Co-President Kim Jong Pil. At this point, South Korea's major political parties and their leaders were all involved in the scandal. Amid urgent calls for the truth to be found out, President Kim Young-sam denied on October 30 that he had received huge political funds from Roh Tae-woo, after vowing to investigate the scandal impartially to prove that his government was fair. But the opposition immediately fought back, saying Kim Young-sam himself was implicated in the scandal. Kim Dae-jung also claimed that Kim Young-sam spent $1.2 billion in the 1992 presidential election, mostly from Roh Tae-woo. Later, Kim Young-sam admitted that he might have received funding from former President Roh Tae-woo during the 1992 presidential campaign, but he denied that he knew about it, saying that it might have been Roh Tae-woo who took the initiative to provide funding to the party, but he Kim Young-sam never touched a penny. Now, the investigation into this secret funds scandal has been fully launched, and Roh Taiyu also went to the General Inspection Office for 16 hours of interrogation on November 2. However, Roh Tae-yu avoided key issues and did not say anything substantive. He only responded with "not knowing" and "forgetting". Despite this, the inspection authorities have confirmed that many well-known large companies in South Korea participated in the transfer of their secret funds to bank accounts for Roh Tae-woo. The inspection authorities will investigate the six or seven companies involved to gain insight into Roh Tae-woo's secret political funds. source. In addition, the inspection authorities also began to investigate problems in Lu Taiyu's family assets, overseas deposits and real estate investments. In fact, secret political funds can be said to be an open secret in South Korea, and all political parties have a tacit understanding of each other. Former South Korean presidents Park Chung-hee, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo are often called by public opinion as "lacking legitimacy" presidents elected through improper means. Therefore, Roh Tae-woo's secret political funding scandal also proves this public opinion. There are many ways to raise political funds. They use the bidding for large-scale national projects to collect a certain proportion of funds as political funds, or hold some investment explanation meetings at the presidential palace to collect donations from people in the business community, or simply reach out to ask for donations from enterprises and accumulate funds to maintain the operation of the ruling party, strengthen its own rule, and leave a way out for yourself. Many people are aware of these things, but no one dares to stand up and expose them. On August 1 this year, South Korea's General Affairs Office Chief Soo Seok Jae said in an interview with reporters: "One of the former presidents was discussing a method to convert a pseudonym account of 400 billion won into a real name account through an agent," which aroused great social repercussions, but he was burned due to insufficient evidence and was dismissed as the chief of the General Affairs Office three days later. After Kim Young-sam's "Civilian Government" was established in 1992, it actively launched an anti-corruption campaign, announced that it would attack the bad habit of political and economic collusion, and implemented a "financial real-name system" to disclose the property of public officials, which caused a new trend in Korean society. However, in South Korea, money politics in the political arena has a long-standing history. As Roh Tae-woo said, collecting "ruling funds" from the economic community has become a consistent practice in South Korea's political culture and electoral atmosphere. Campaigns that require huge sums of money cannot be carried out with just a little political funding provided by the state. Therefore, it is self-evident where political parties often spend tens of billions of won in campaign funds. The Roh Tae-woo secret political funding scandal is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Kim Young-sam's "real-name financial system", exposing the problems and loopholes in the "real-name financial system." In addition, some people think that it is difficult for Lu Taiyu to accumulate such a large sum of money solely based on corporate donations, so the money is likely to be obtained by accepting bribes from companies. Public opinion believes that this unfair competition method by enterprises will inevitably have an impact on the atmosphere of fair competition. In addition, the exposure of secret funds also exposed loopholes in South Korea's tax management. Although these secret funds all flowed out from large companies, there is no evidence to prove it, which shows that these companies themselves are secretly hiding funds and evading tax payments. The money is said to have also flowed into the pockets of many policy makers in the Kim Young-sam government, in addition to the president. Enterprises also have difficulties in providing political funds. After Lu Taiyu delivered an apology speech, people in the business community refuted that "donations" are "donations in the real sense of donations that are paid spontaneously from the heart"? This collusive relationship between political and business circles has a long history. When the government has all policy means such as taxation and finance, the survival strategy of enterprises can only be to obey political power. If enterprises cannot participate in projects that the government grants preferential policies, they will be eliminated in the competition of the business community. Therefore, the provision of political funds by enterprises can be said to be a shadow left by the South Korean government-dominated economy, which has not yet been erased. On the political front, this secret funding scandal will add insult to injury to the already troubled ruling party. Because, in the local elections in June this year, the Democratic Democratic Party was already defeated, causing South Korean politics to show a situation where the "three golds" were competing against each other. The secret funding scandal of former President Roh Tae-woo has undoubtedly brought huge pressure to Kim Young-sam. Now, Kim Young-sam is facing a difficult problem in how to deal with Roh Tae-woo's issue. If Roh Tae-woo is arrested, it will set a precedent in South Korea's constitutional history for arresting the former president. Not only may the ruling Democratic Democratic Party have internal divisions, but more fatally, this may be the issue of funding for the 1992 presidential election, which has already caused a stir in the court and the public, may also be exposed. This is undoubtedly a negative factor for the Democratic Democratic Party, which is about to hold parliamentary elections next year. If Lu Taiyu is not arrested, public opinion will never agree, and the opposition party will also use this opportunity to attack the ruling party. Therefore, how to deal with Roh Tae-woo and the chaos caused by this scandal will have a great impact on the Kim Young-sam regime.