With only two days remaining until the presidential election, negative campaigning reached fever pitch Monday over a disputed police investigation into alleged illicit electioneering by a state agency employee and the opposition candidate’s stance on the maritime border with North Korea.

Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party made their last-minute appeals in Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces in the neck-and-neck race.

Park sharply criticized the DUP over its recent claim that a National Intelligence Service official conducted an online smear campaign against Moon. Police said on Sunday their initial investigation found no evidence to back the charge. 

“The DUP raided the woman’s home and forcefully kept her indoors, claiming that 70 NIS agents were involved in a systemic political maneuvering, but police found no trace of her posting slanderous comments,” she said at a campaign rally in Cheonan.

“It proved that the very kind of new politics and human rights that the DUP are touting cannot safeguard the people.”

Last week, police raided the residence of the woman and confiscated computer hard disks. Police presented their initial report late on Sunday, shortly after the candidates’ last televised debate.

“We have found traces of multiple IDs on the hard disks but no evidence of illegal campaigning,” said a police official.

The opposition DUP claimed that the police colluded with the right-wing camp, breaching its duty of political neutrality.

“The police hurriedly held its briefing late at night in order to have the issue highlighted in the morning papers,” said the DUP’s public communications chief Woo Sang-ho.

“The police report was not only flawed but also politically biased. We suspect that the Saenuri Party exerted pressure (on the police) as candidate Park Geun-hye was utterly defeated in last night’s debate.”

The party noted that police did not confiscate Kim’s smartphone or inquire into her online records on major portal sites citing the lack of an official search warrant.

Several DUP lawmakers, including camp spokesperson Kim Hyun, visited the National Police Agency on Monday afternoon to lodge a complaint over the process and results of the investigation.

Saenuri Spokesperson Lee Sang-il claimed that the incident was a DUP attempt to manipulate public opinion before the election.

“Candidate Moon should offer his apology for involving the innocent employee and the state agency in his campaigning scheme,” he said.

The right-wing party’s officials also accused DUP officials of illicitly tailing and threatening the NIS employee.

The two parties also clashed over the allegation that former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun compromised South Korea’s stance on the Northern Limit Line, a de facto maritime border with North Korea, during his summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007.

The liberal party lodged complaints against Reps. Chung Moon-hun and Lee Cheol-woo as well as Saenuri spokesman Park Sun-kyoo for “spreading lies” with the aim of affecting the election.

The Seoul Central Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday it received the summit minutes from the National Intelligence Service as part of its ongoing investigation prompted by a suit the DUP filed against Saenuri lawmaker Chung Moon-hun, who raised the allegations.

“Candidate Moon is fiercely opposed to the disclosure of the document. The point of view on nationhood of a state leader is very important especially when our security is threatened by North Korea. The people have the right to know about it.” Park said on the campaign trail.

Moon dismissed the allegations that the minutes contained what the Saenuri billed as Roh’s renouncement of the NLL.

“You have no need to worry about it,” he said. “The Saenuri Party is maneuvering to reverse the current electoral balance which is disadvantageous to it with the claims about the NLL and the incident involving the NIS official,” he said at a campaign rally in Incheon.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)