Was it to blackmail an opponent or to give advice to an old friend?

An aide to Ahn Cheol-soo, a strong potential presidential candidate, alleged Thursday that a Saenuri Party official threatened to expose skeletons in the entrepreneur-turned-professor’s closet.

Geum Tae-sup, a lawyer with close ties to Ahn, claimed that Jeong Joon-gil, a Saenuri media relations official, called him Tuesday and said the ruling party would disclose allegations about Ahn’s “bribery and woman problems,” if he decided to run for the December election.

According to the attorney, one allegation was about Ahn bribing a Korea Development Bank official in 1999 to attract the bank’s investment in AhnLab, a software company he founded, while the other was about the presidential hopeful having had an affair until recently with a woman who was in her 30s, had a musical background and lived in Seoul’s Mok-dong.

Geum said he immediately checked with Ahn and heard from him that the allegations were all outright lies.

Ahn’s denial led the lawyer to define Jeong’s comments as blackmail and to suspect that an outside intelligence agency or police might have conducted illegal surveillance on Ahn and conveyed the collected information to the Saenuri Party.

Jeong, however, denied Geum’s allegations as groundless, saying he simply relayed rumors about Ahn that he heard from reporters. A former prosecutor, the Saenuri official said he did so casually because he and Geum had been friends for the past 20 years. They both graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Law in 1986.

Jeong said he wanted to advise his friend to be prepared for the inevitable vetting process that Ahn would have to undergo if he ran for president. He criticized Geum for exaggerating his comments and accusing him of blackmail.

It is difficult at the moment to tell who was telling the truth and who was telling lies. But it was certainly inappropriate for Jeong to talk with Geum about topics that could inflict irreparable damage on Ahn ― even if they were friends. So it was right for him to step down immediately.

Yet the Saenuri Party needs to clarify whether the allegations raised by Jeong are true or not. If they are groundless rumors, it needs to apologize to Ahn and make sure that a similar incident does not occur.

Now Ahn appears ready to announce his candidacy. He should be ready to run the media gauntlet. If Geum’s accusations of Jeong’s comments were intended to preempt the vetting process, he was mistaken.