ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES OF ARMY rule, political scientists say, is that corruption can be controlled--if the general at the top so desires. When retired General Roh Tae Woo served as South Korea's President from 1988 to 1993, his desires were in a different direction, and he ended up amassing a political slush fund of at least $650 million. Roh was caught in the slush last month, and South Korean prosecutors are pushing him to disclose the chain of command in what appears to be a vast army of the corrupt--and they're pushing hard. Following his first interrogation session last week, which lasted 16 hours, Roh, 62, almost collapsed upon reaching his car. At his residence, he had to be carried inside.

Many South Koreans suspect that Roh's entire generation of politicians, businessmen and related wheeler-dealers is starting to buckle at the knees in the wake of the slush-fund scandal. Prosecutors have already named 140 companies suspected of donating to the fund; questioning of businessmen is expected to start this week. Top opposition leader Kim Dae Jung admitted receiving $2.6 million from Roh in 1992. Kim claimed that a longtime rival, President Kim Young Sam, got even more, a charge the President firmly denied. Another leading opposition figure, Kim Jong Pil, is said to have received $13 million from an unnamed source. And as the revelations continue, the public's mood of bitter outrage shows no signs of subsiding. "What can we tell our children," complains Park Se Kwon, a self-employed electrical appliances retailer, "when a former President is accused of making a disgraceful fortune?"

South Korea has experienced many corruption purges in the past, but most were political housecleanings dressed up in the rhetoric of morality. Now prosecutors have tapped into the main vein, but it remains to be seen how zealous they will be as the scandal spreads. In the past, President Kim has portrayed himself as an anticorruption crusader, and he is responsible for, among other reforms, banning the use of false names on bank accounts. Last week he told aides that Roh's slush fund was a crime and that the truth should be investigated thoroughly.

But this is a scandal that might leave few politicians unsullied, and it would be a miracle if some baffles weren't quickly constructed to keep the slush from sinking the whole ship of state. Authorities announced last week that of the 140 companies implicated as contributors to the fund, only 10 would be prosecuted. (The rest were said to have donated token sums.) Giant chaebol (large conglomerate) Daewoo is one of three chaebol that prosecutors are officially investigating in connection with laundering money for Roh Tae Woo.

Roh spent many of his 16 hours of interrogation stonewalling and saying he didn't remember details. He flatly refused to reveal certain information, such as whether funds were given to President Kim and Kim Dae Jung for their competing 1992 presidential campaigns. According to prosecutors, Roh refused "for the sake of the future of the country." Why would he have given money to both candidates? Perhaps he wanted to hedge his bets, making sure that he would have influence with either possible winner.

The ex-President hasn't been arrested, and investigators are planning to leave him alone until they gather more material. They expect a lot from Roh's former security chief Lee Hyun Woo, who has admitted to being the "custodian" of the slush fund. Prosecutors think he was much more--perhaps the liaison between the President's office and private business--and they're hoping to exploit a rift that is developing between the two men. More than 300 groups have issued appeals for Roh's arrest, and Koreans are becoming incensed over speculation that, if tried, he could ultimately receive a suspended sentence or a presidential pardon. If public anger continues at such a high level, there may be a snowballing of demands for government accountability. One national tragedy that remains unresolved is the 1980 Kwangju Massacre, in which nearly 200 students were killed in an army crackdown on antigovernment demonstrations. Who gave the orders in Kwangju has never been established although both Roh and his predecessor Chun Doo Hwan were at the top of the chain of command. The sins of the past are fast coming into the open in South Korea, and no one knows quite where the story will stop.

--Reported by K.C. Hwang/Seoul