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1_On May 15, 1988, the Hankyoreh was inaugurated. In an
editorial on the front page of the inaugural issue, the Hanky
oreh committed itself to representing the views of the people
as well as to defend freedom of the press.
2_On Dec. 21, 1988, the Hankyoreh published a scoop expo
sing Lee Keun-Ahn, then-incumbent Director of Public Security
for Kyeonggi Province, as the former security official who had
used electric torture on a number of victims. A number of diss
ident figures, including those who had been tortured brutally
by Mr. Lee, had been striving to identify the torturer. Among
the victims were Kim Keun-tae, former minister of Health and
Social Welfare and a Congressman and Lee Jae-oh, presently
floor leader of the main opposition Grand National Party. After
the exposure, Mr. Lee was arrested and indicted for torture
and abuse of power.
3_On Apr. 21, 1989, agents of the National Security Planning
Agency (NSPA), presently National Intelligence Agency, raided
the office of the Hankyoreh and took two senior staffs of the
Hankyoreh into custody on charge of violation of National Se
curity Law. The two staffs were Jang Yoon-hwan(right in the
picture), managing editor, and Chung Tae-ki(left in the picture),
Director of Development Headquarter. Mr. Chung is now presi
dent of the Hankyoreh. NSPA insisted that the Hankyoreh's
plan to dispatch reporters to cover north Korea was violation
of National Security Law prohibiting unauthorized contacts
with north Koreans as well as visits to north Korea. The abor
tive coverage plan was led by the two figures. The front page
story reported the raid.
4_On May 16, 1990, the Hankyoreh carried a story of Mr. Lee
Moon-ok's arrest. Mr. Lee, public auditor of the Board of Audit
and Inspection, provided to a Hankyoreh reporter a copy of
inspection reports on tremendous possessions of land by chaebol or industrial conglomerates. The Hankyoreh carry a se
ries of story based on the reports, revealing chaebol had bee
n making huge capital gains through land speculation.
5_On Oct 5, 1990, the Hankyoreh published an exclusive stor
y on the illegal surveillances by Military Intelligence Agency of
1,300 leading civilian leaders including former President Kim
Young-sam and Cardinal Kim. The Hankyoreh carry the story
based on a whistle-blowing by a deserter Yoon Suk-yang who
had felt angry about the constant surveillances by the military
intelligence organization. This exposure shocked Korean peo
ple who believed that authoritain rule was over with the inau
guration of President Roh Tae-woo in 1989.
6_On Mar. 23, 1992, the Hankyoreh broke a shocking story tha
t ballotings in the military barracks across the nation were rigg
ed in a large scale in the general elections. The exposure was
based on the testimony by Lee Ji-moon, first lieutenant with
9th Division of Army. Lee was quoted as saying that company
commanders in the barracks coerced soldiers to vote for candi
dates of the then ruling Democratic Liberal Party.
Lee was also quoted in the story as saying that open balloting
was carried out in some barracks. Shortly after the whistle-blo
wing to the Hankyoreh Lee was arrested and court-martialed.
7_The issue of Mar. 10, 1977 is a historic scoop exposing the
overstepping and scandals of Kim Hyun-chol, son of President
Kim Young-sam, which dealt a heavy blow to President Kim.
The story revealed that Hyun-chol overstepped in the choice
of a state-run cable TV network YTN, underscoring the rumor
that he was wielding formidable influence almost like second
President at back stage. President Kim admitted publicly hat
his son was inappropriated in the government affairs and apo
logized for the misdeeds. This story sparked off media buzz
and his various wrongdoings were published in the media.
In the wake of these scandals, President Kim lost moral autho
rity and slipped into a lame-duck president.
8_On Mar. 30 2001, the Hankyoreh carried a story showing th
at the Chosun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo, two of Korea's leading dai
lies, paid tribute to Japanese Emperor and collaborated arden
tly with Japanese colonialists during Japanese colonial rule.
The owners of the two newspapers took part in the propaga
nda drives by the Japanese imperialists actively. After Japan
invaded China in 1937, Chosun Ilbo published a New Year iss
ue showing great allegiances toward Japanese colonialist by
inserting Japanese national flag upon the masterhead its pa
per on front page. The Hankyoreh published a series of speci
al reports on the pro-Japanese activities of the owners of Cho
sun Ilbo and Donga Ilbo during Japanese colonial occupation.
9_The front page of May 25, 1999 issue carried a revealing
story on contentious lobbying activities by Mrs. Lee Hyung-ja,
wife of Choe Soon-young, chairman of Shindonga group who
se flagship company had been Daehan Life Insurance. Mrs.
Lee bought luxurious garments for wives of incumbent power
ful ministers of Kim Dae-jung government as part of her lobby
ing efforts to set free her husband in jail.
Her husband was arrested on charges of diverting foreign ea
rnings illegally. Among the involved in the 뭛arment lobby scan
dal?were wives of incumbent justice minister, former reunifica
tion minister and defense minister. This scandal, which took around one year President Kim took office, was the first accident which raised questi
ons about moral hazards of key senior officials. Since that time on, the popularity of
Kim Dae-jung government continue to decline.
10_On Aug. 25, 2000 the Hankyoreh carried a story disclosing
that Hanbit Bank, a city bank, provided a sum of 46 billion won
( around 500 million US dollars) bank loans to several compani
es at the request of Park Ji-won, minister of culture and touris
m, a top aide to President Kim Dae-jung , widely believed to
be wielding formidable influence on politics as well as business
at that time. This report sparked off a fierce controversy over
whether Mr. Park abused his power in the favorable loans.
It turned out that the companies which got the privileged loan
s were run by Mr. Park뭩 relatives and acquaintances.
Exposures concerning Park뭩 oversteppings followed one after
another. Finally President Kim fired Park. This scandal undermin
ed severely moral ground of the Kim regime.
11_On March 4, 2003, The Hankyoreh published the 5,000th issue since its inauguration on May 15, 1988. In a special front
-page column, Mr. Kwon Jung-saeng, fairy tale writer, emphasiz
ed that the Hankyoreh should present a dream to the Korean
people. The Hankyoreh has made strident progresses during
the past 16 years, establishing itself as an ardent champion
of independent journalism and national reconciliation and pea
ce in the Korean Peninsula.
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