Supreme Court Finds Four Guilty for Involvement in the Remittance to North Korea

On March 26, the second division of the Supreme Court of Korea, under the supervision of chief justice Kim Yong-dam, rejected the appeal and settled the original guilty judgment regarding the indictment of four individuals involved in remittance to North Korea prior to the 6.15 summit talks of 2000.

Found guilty were the former director of National Intelligence Service (NIS), Im Dong-won; the former governor of the Korea Development Bank, Lee Kun-young; the former deputy governor of the Korea Development Bank, Park Sang-bae; and CEO of Hyundai Asan, Kim, Yoon-kyu.

The former director Im was sentenced to 18 months in jail with a three-year stay of execution, while the former governor Lee was sentenced to three years in jail with a four-year stay of execution. Also, the former deputy governor Park was sentenced to 30 months in jail with a three-year stay of execution, and Kim CEO was sentenced to one year in jail with a two-year stay of execution.

The judge panel said “Although we recognize the perspective for constraints of judicial review against national activity containing high political significance, the act itself of remitting 450 million dollars to North Korea and disregarding legal procedure is a definite target of judicial investigation.”

Among those involved in remittance to North Korea, both the former advisor to the president for economic policy, Lee Ki-ho, and the former executive director of NIS, Choi Kyu-baek, were sentenced to three years in jail with a four-year stay of execution and probation. They were already found guilty by abandoning an appeal last year. A court of justice dismissed a public action regarding the former chairman of Hyundai Asan, Chung Mon-hun, who had already passed away.

Moreover, Park Ji-won, the former minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (who has been prosecuted for receiving Hyundai slush funds of 15 billion and leading the illegal remittance to North Korea), was sentenced to 12 years in jail at the original judgment and was under a trail on an appeals case. The case of remittance was sending 450 million dollars illegally to North Korea by the ex-minister Park and ex-chairman Chung right before the summit talks of 2000. Last year, a special prosecution team led by Song Doo-whan started the investigation and prosecuted eight of those involved, including ex-minister Park.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com