Chairman Kim Seung-yeon`s Summons Revised

While investigating two persons in the probe into whether the chairman of the Hanwha Group Kim Seung-yeon used his bodyguards to retaliate against club workers, the Namdaemun Police Station Friday obtained statements that Chairman Kim was present at the spot where violent actions first took place and that some of the bodyguards who were there with Chairman Kim took violent actions.

Police requested a ban on Chairman Kim from leaving the country on April 26, which the prosecution turned down for lack of specific evidence. On April 27 police made another request for a travel ban with strengthened evidence.

Police decided to summon the second son of Chairman Kim (22, a senior at the School of Management, Yale University) on April 28 and will confirm whether or not they will summon Chairman Kim himself. It will reveal its mid-term investigation results on April 30.

On the same day, police summoned the chief of the general affairs department and the head of the secretary’s office of Hanwha Engineering & Construction, who are in charge of guarding of the chairman, and carried out an intensive investigation over whether Chairman Kim was involved in the violation, the suspicious abduction to Mt. Cheonggye, and the use of weapons.

During the police investigation the two said, “Chairman Kim was present at G karaoke in Cheongdam-dong and S club in Bukchang-dong," and that “17 Hanwha people, including Chairman Kim and his son, moved together in six cars."

Until now, Chairman Kim`s side has claimed that he “has never been to G karaoke in Cheongdam-dong and only three bodyguards were with him when he went to Bukchang-dong."

Police said, “They are denying that Chairman Kim himself took violent action against the employees of S club. We are intensively investigating the information that the employees were taken to Mt. Cheonggye and beaten up and the possibilities of the Chairman`s side mobilizing gangsters and using weapons."

Police also summoned five employees and the president of S club in Bukchang-dong in the afternoon on the same day, and also investigated the 15 bodyguards from Hanwha who were involved.

Statements that Chairman Kim himself was involved in the violation reported by the press led police to increase the number of investigators from Namdaemun Police Station from four to 24, and to add 20 persons to the investigation effort from the criminal division of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Wide-Area Investigation Squad. This is the first time a special investigation headquarters has been formed in an investigation of this nature.

imsun@donga.com