Park Cheol-eon (朴哲彦, born 5 August 1942) is a South Korean politician, bureaucrat, and lawyer. He served as a member of the National Assembly in the 13th, 14th, and 15th terms. After passing the 8th higher civil service examination in the judicial division, he worked as a prosecutor. In 1980 he was
Park Cheol-eon (朴哲彦, born 5 August 1942) is a South Koreanpolitician,1 bureaucrat, and lawyer. He served as a member of the National Assembly in the 13th, 14th, and 15th terms.
After passing the 8th higher civil service examination in the judicial division, he worked as a prosecutor. In 1980 he was dispatched to the National Security Emergency Measures Committee as a member of its Legislation and Judiciary Committee, where he took part in drafting the constitution of the Fifth Republic. His family seat is Miryang (密陽), and his pen name (號) is Cheongmin (靑民). During the Fifth Republic he served as political secretary in the Blue House and as special adviser to the director of the Agency for National Security Planning. After Roh Tae-woo took office as president, he served as a national-constituency National Assembly member, Minister for Political Affairs I, and Minister of Sports, exercised the Democratic Justice Party's nomination power, and led the July 7 Declaration. After the 1990 merger of three parties, he came into conflict with Kim Young-sam and was pushed out, and he was arrested and later released in connection with the slot machine incident. After losing the 2000 16th National Assembly general election, he retired from politics.
On 26 February 1965 he graduated from the law department of Seoul National University, and at that time he received the Seoul National University president's award.
In 1967 he passed the first stage of the 7th judicial examination,4 and in August of that year he passed the final stage of the 8th higher civil service examination in the judicial division. On 12 April 1972 he was assigned as a prosecutor to the Busan District Prosecutors' Office. On 4 May of that year he caught and indicted a fishery operator who had washed seafood in contaminated water, and on 6 May he caught and indicted the representative of Binrae Milk and others who had transported milk without refrigeration equipment.
On 21 July 1973 he indicted and sent to trial resident doctors at Busan Fukuin Hospital who were engaged in factional fighting based on school background.
On 13 August 1973 he indicted Lee Hoe-taek, a football player who had been sent to prosecution on charges of violating the Act on the Punishment of Violences, etc., but after appeals for leniency from Cha Bum-kun and others, he was granted suspension of indictment on 24 August and released.5 In October 1973 he arrested the director and board chairman of the Busan Anerise Orphanage, who had embezzled 3 million won in subsidies.
In March 1974 he investigated unauthorized land reclamation at the mouth of the Nakdong River and businesses that damaged the migratory bird habitat at the Nakdong River estuary, which had been designated Natural Monument No. 179. He booked and indicted officials including the head of the construction office of Busan City Hall. On 23 August 1974 he was assigned to the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office, and thereafter served concurrently as a prosecutor in the 1st Investigation Division of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office; on 23 July 1976 he became a prosecutor in the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice concurrently with the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office; on 27 August 1977 he became a prosecutor in the 2nd Prosecution Division of the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice; and on 7 February 1978 he became a prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office.
In July 1978 he was added to the investigation of Hyundai Engineering & Construction executives and related persons who had granted preferential apartment sales.6 In August 1979 he investigated Cho OO, an accounting section chief in the value-added tax division of the Seoul Jungbu Tax Office, who had concealed his public official status while holding a concurrent post in private business.7 In August 1979 he was in charge of the investigation into the death of Kim Kyung-sook, a female worker of YH Trading, who fell to her death.8 In 1980 he was assigned to the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.
In February 1980 he took part in the investigation of persons related to the Namminjeon.910
Activities in the Fifth Republic
While working as a prosecutor, after the emergence of the New Military Regime, in 1980 he was dispatched to the National Security Emergency Measures Committee as a member of its Legislation and Judiciary Committee, where he took part in the drafting of the constitution of the Fifth Republic. On 4 November 1980 he became a prosecutor in the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, and on 9 December he was assigned as a prosecutor to the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office. Afterward he served as political secretary in the Blue House and as special adviser to the director of the Agency for National Security Planning, and during this time he secretly visited North Korea more than 20 times. Park served as a constant aide to Roh Tae-woo, who was regarded as a successor to Chun Doo-hwan.
In 1983 he served as a Blue House secretary while concurrently serving as head of the special investigation division of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office.11 In 1984 he became a department chief prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office and a rehabilitation protection commissioner of the Ministry of Justice, then served as a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and on 28 November 1986 he was promoted to chief prosecutor. In 1987, while serving as chief prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, he published a paper arguing that torture in investigations runs counter to democratic order, which drew attention.12
Activities in the Sixth Republic
In March 1988, after Roh Tae-woo took office as president, he became presidential policy adviser, and in July he became a Blue House secretary. He soon became a national-constituency member of the 13th National Assembly of the Democratic Justice Party, was called the "Crown Prince of the Sixth Republic," and served as Minister for Political Affairs I and Minister of Sports and Youth, among other posts. However, Park argued that the title "Crown Prince of the Sixth Republic" actually applied to Kim Young-sam, then representative of the Democratic Liberal Party, and that the title did not suit him.
In January 1990, just before the three-party merger, he mediated the merger. He was also one of the persons with whom Kim Young-sam discussed the three-party merger, but later he competed with Kim Young-sam for the position of next successor and was pushed out. He eventually left the Democratic Liberal Party and joined the Unification National Party, after which he was plunged into political ruin by the slot machine incident. In April of that year he submitted his resignation as Minister for Political Affairs I, and from 4 to 14 August he visited the Soviet Union, met with Soviet President Gorbachev, and then returned home.
In addition, he operated a private law office, serving as representative of the Park Cheol-eon Law Office, and he served as chairman of the Korean Peninsula Welfare and Unification Foundation.
Cabinet-system constitutional revision and conflict with Kim Young-sam
Park Cheol-eon insisted on a constitutional revision establishing a cabinet system. An article in the JoongAng Ilbo dated 25 October 1990 reported that "just before the party convention, President Roh Tae-woo, Representative Kim Young-sam, and Supreme Council member Kim Jong-pil agreed on a cabinet-system constitutional revision and drew up a memorandum." That article completely made up for the weakness of an identical article that had been published five months earlier, by making public a copy of the agreement memorandum.13
On Kim Young-sam's side, they resisted, saying, "Disclosing the agreement document is a political scheme to corner Representative Kim and deny him the presidency. Since the people do not want it, we will never do it; rather, scrap the cabinet system."
Meanwhile, Park staked his political life on the cabinet system. A cabinet system in which whoever controls many National Assembly members seizes power was a system made for him. He was the de facto leader of the majority Democratic Justice Party faction. However, in a constitutional revision for a cabinet system there was a fatal problem: if Kim Young-sam opposed it, there was no way to realize it. Park believed that if the cabinet system collapsed, he too would collapse, and he was anxious to do whatever it took to keep Kim Young-sam from escaping the cabinet agreement. Getting Kim Young-sam to sign the cabinet agreement document, which Kim had been so averse to, was the key. Park persisted obsessively and in the end succeeded.
However, if he thought he could hold Kim Young-sam's leg with a single sheet of paper, he was gravely mistaken. As of October 1990, Kim Young-sam had signed the memorandum only because he had no choice, and he had never intended to keep that agreement from the start. Kim Young-sam fiercely opposed the cabinet system, because the presidency would lose its real power.
In early 1992, Kim Young-sam again pressed Roh Tae-woo and Park Cheol-eon.
Roh Tae-woo and Park Cheol-eon had to find a clever plan to re-elect the administration without Kim Young-sam, but in the end they did not succeed.14Roh Tae-woo and Park brought in Roh Jae-bong, whom Chun Doo-hwan had once considered as one of his successors. Park's offensive, centered on the Roh Jae-bong cabinet, was merely a last-ditch effort. Kim Young-sam pressed Park, saying that if they gave him a successor he would immediately begin an anti-government struggle, and in the end Roh Tae-woo gave in. On 6 April 1991, Park resigned as honorary adviser of the Wolgyesu Association, the support base of Roh Tae-woo, by Roh's order. The fate of Park Tae-joon and Lee Jong-chan, who had tried to become the Democratic Liberal Party presidential candidate against Kim Young-sam, was not much different from Park Cheol-eon's. On 19 May 1992, Kim Young-sam was finally selected as the Democratic Liberal Party presidential candidate. Exclamations of amazement came from the mouths of the Democratic Justice Party's old guard, who had mocked Kim Young-sam by saying, "He will enter the tiger's den and be eaten by the tiger."
Completed master's course at the Graduate School of Judicial Studies, Seoul National University, Master of Laws (thesis title: "Freedom of Occupational Choice and Its Restrictions")
Completed doctoral course in the Department of Law, graduate school of Hanyang University, Doctor of Laws (thesis title: "A Study on the Conflict and Harmony between Freedom of the Press and National Security: Focusing on Restrictions on Access to and Use of State Secrets")
Works
Testimony for a Correct History: Political Secrets of the Fifth, Sixth, and Three Kims Eras (《바른 역사를 위한 증언(5공, 6공, 3김 시대의 정치 비사)》), 2 vols. (Random House JoongAng, 2005)
Park Cheol-eon (朴哲彦, born 5 August 1942) is a South Koreanpolitician,1 bureaucrat, and lawyer. He served as a member of the National Assembly in the 13th, 14th, and 15th terms.
After passing the 8th higher civil service examination in the judicial division, he worked as a prosecutor. In 1980 he was dispatched to the National Security Emergency Measures Committee as a member of its Legislation and Judiciary Committee, where he took part in drafting the constitution of the Fifth Republic. His family seat is Miryang (密陽), and his pen name (號) is Cheongmin (靑民). During the Fifth Republic he served as political secretary in the Blue House and as special adviser to the director of the Agency for National Security Planning. After Roh Tae-woo took office as president, he served as a national-constituency National Assembly member, Minister for Political Affairs I, and Minister of Sports, exercised the Democratic Justice Party's nomination power, and led the July 7 Declaration. After the 1990 merger of three parties, he came into conflict with Kim Young-sam and was pushed out, and he was arrested and later released in connection with the slot machine incident. After losing the 2000 16th National Assembly general election, he retired from politics.
On 26 February 1965 he graduated from the law department of Seoul National University, and at that time he received the Seoul National University president's award.
In 1967 he passed the first stage of the 7th judicial examination,4 and in August of that year he passed the final stage of the 8th higher civil service examination in the judicial division. On 12 April 1972 he was assigned as a prosecutor to the Busan District Prosecutors' Office. On 4 May of that year he caught and indicted a fishery operator who had washed seafood in contaminated water, and on 6 May he caught and indicted the representative of Binrae Milk and others who had transported milk without refrigeration equipment.
On 21 July 1973 he indicted and sent to trial resident doctors at Busan Fukuin Hospital who were engaged in factional fighting based on school background.
On 13 August 1973 he indicted Lee Hoe-taek, a football player who had been sent to prosecution on charges of violating the Act on the Punishment of Violences, etc., but after appeals for leniency from Cha Bum-kun and others, he was granted suspension of indictment on 24 August and released.5 In October 1973 he arrested the director and board chairman of the Busan Anerise Orphanage, who had embezzled 3 million won in subsidies.
In March 1974 he investigated unauthorized land reclamation at the mouth of the Nakdong River and businesses that damaged the migratory bird habitat at the Nakdong River estuary, which had been designated Natural Monument No. 179. He booked and indicted officials including the head of the construction office of Busan City Hall. On 23 August 1974 he was assigned to the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office, and thereafter served concurrently as a prosecutor in the 1st Investigation Division of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office; on 23 July 1976 he became a prosecutor in the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice concurrently with the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office; on 27 August 1977 he became a prosecutor in the 2nd Prosecution Division of the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice; and on 7 February 1978 he became a prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office.
In July 1978 he was added to the investigation of Hyundai Engineering & Construction executives and related persons who had granted preferential apartment sales.6 In August 1979 he investigated Cho OO, an accounting section chief in the value-added tax division of the Seoul Jungbu Tax Office, who had concealed his public official status while holding a concurrent post in private business.7 In August 1979 he was in charge of the investigation into the death of Kim Kyung-sook, a female worker of YH Trading, who fell to her death.8 In 1980 he was assigned to the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.
In February 1980 he took part in the investigation of persons related to the Namminjeon.910
Activities in the Fifth Republic
While working as a prosecutor, after the emergence of the New Military Regime, in 1980 he was dispatched to the National Security Emergency Measures Committee as a member of its Legislation and Judiciary Committee, where he took part in the drafting of the constitution of the Fifth Republic. On 4 November 1980 he became a prosecutor in the Prosecution Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, and on 9 December he was assigned as a prosecutor to the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office. Afterward he served as political secretary in the Blue House and as special adviser to the director of the Agency for National Security Planning, and during this time he secretly visited North Korea more than 20 times. Park served as a constant aide to Roh Tae-woo, who was regarded as a successor to Chun Doo-hwan.
In 1983 he served as a Blue House secretary while concurrently serving as head of the special investigation division of the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office.11 In 1984 he became a department chief prosecutor at the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office and a rehabilitation protection commissioner of the Ministry of Justice, then served as a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, and on 28 November 1986 he was promoted to chief prosecutor. In 1987, while serving as chief prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, he published a paper arguing that torture in investigations runs counter to democratic order, which drew attention.12
Activities in the Sixth Republic
In March 1988, after Roh Tae-woo took office as president, he became presidential policy adviser, and in July he became a Blue House secretary. He soon became a national-constituency member of the 13th National Assembly of the Democratic Justice Party, was called the "Crown Prince of the Sixth Republic," and served as Minister for Political Affairs I and Minister of Sports and Youth, among other posts. However, Park argued that the title "Crown Prince of the Sixth Republic" actually applied to Kim Young-sam, then representative of the Democratic Liberal Party, and that the title did not suit him.
In January 1990, just before the three-party merger, he mediated the merger. He was also one of the persons with whom Kim Young-sam discussed the three-party merger, but later he competed with Kim Young-sam for the position of next successor and was pushed out. He eventually left the Democratic Liberal Party and joined the Unification National Party, after which he was plunged into political ruin by the slot machine incident. In April of that year he submitted his resignation as Minister for Political Affairs I, and from 4 to 14 August he visited the Soviet Union, met with Soviet President Gorbachev, and then returned home.
In addition, he operated a private law office, serving as representative of the Park Cheol-eon Law Office, and he served as chairman of the Korean Peninsula Welfare and Unification Foundation.
Cabinet-system constitutional revision and conflict with Kim Young-sam
Park Cheol-eon insisted on a constitutional revision establishing a cabinet system. An article in the JoongAng Ilbo dated 25 October 1990 reported that "just before the party convention, President Roh Tae-woo, Representative Kim Young-sam, and Supreme Council member Kim Jong-pil agreed on a cabinet-system constitutional revision and drew up a memorandum." That article completely made up for the weakness of an identical article that had been published five months earlier, by making public a copy of the agreement memorandum.13
On Kim Young-sam's side, they resisted, saying, "Disclosing the agreement document is a political scheme to corner Representative Kim and deny him the presidency. Since the people do not want it, we will never do it; rather, scrap the cabinet system."
Meanwhile, Park staked his political life on the cabinet system. A cabinet system in which whoever controls many National Assembly members seizes power was a system made for him. He was the de facto leader of the majority Democratic Justice Party faction. However, in a constitutional revision for a cabinet system there was a fatal problem: if Kim Young-sam opposed it, there was no way to realize it. Park believed that if the cabinet system collapsed, he too would collapse, and he was anxious to do whatever it took to keep Kim Young-sam from escaping the cabinet agreement. Getting Kim Young-sam to sign the cabinet agreement document, which Kim had been so averse to, was the key. Park persisted obsessively and in the end succeeded.
However, if he thought he could hold Kim Young-sam's leg with a single sheet of paper, he was gravely mistaken. As of October 1990, Kim Young-sam had signed the memorandum only because he had no choice, and he had never intended to keep that agreement from the start. Kim Young-sam fiercely opposed the cabinet system, because the presidency would lose its real power.
In early 1992, Kim Young-sam again pressed Roh Tae-woo and Park Cheol-eon.
Roh Tae-woo and Park Cheol-eon had to find a clever plan to re-elect the administration without Kim Young-sam, but in the end they did not succeed.14Roh Tae-woo and Park brought in Roh Jae-bong, whom Chun Doo-hwan had once considered as one of his successors. Park's offensive, centered on the Roh Jae-bong cabinet, was merely a last-ditch effort. Kim Young-sam pressed Park, saying that if they gave him a successor he would immediately begin an anti-government struggle, and in the end Roh Tae-woo gave in. On 6 April 1991, Park resigned as honorary adviser of the Wolgyesu Association, the support base of Roh Tae-woo, by Roh's order. The fate of Park Tae-joon and Lee Jong-chan, who had tried to become the Democratic Liberal Party presidential candidate against Kim Young-sam, was not much different from Park Cheol-eon's. On 19 May 1992, Kim Young-sam was finally selected as the Democratic Liberal Party presidential candidate. Exclamations of amazement came from the mouths of the Democratic Justice Party's old guard, who had mocked Kim Young-sam by saying, "He will enter the tiger's den and be eaten by the tiger."
Completed master's course at the Graduate School of Judicial Studies, Seoul National University, Master of Laws (thesis title: "Freedom of Occupational Choice and Its Restrictions")
Completed doctoral course in the Department of Law, graduate school of Hanyang University, Doctor of Laws (thesis title: "A Study on the Conflict and Harmony between Freedom of the Press and National Security: Focusing on Restrictions on Access to and Use of State Secrets")
Works
Testimony for a Correct History: Political Secrets of the Fifth, Sixth, and Three Kims Eras (《바른 역사를 위한 증언(5공, 6공, 3김 시대의 정치 비사)》), 2 vols. (Random House JoongAng, 2005)