Former minister under probe on PCS licensing

The Central Investigation Bureau of the High Prosecutor`s Office has resumed its investigation into a scandal involving the selection of personal communications service providers by the ministry of information and communications years ago. The resumption was made possible by the return of its ex-minister Lee Suk-Chae from the United States, where he had been staying to avoid facing charges of influence peddling when the choice was made. Lee arrived at Incheon Airport Friday morning aboard a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane that left Nagoya, Japan, and was immediately whisked away by investigators to the prosecutor`s office in Seocho-dong. In recent months he had been reported to have made up his mind to come home several times upon hearing news that his mother was critically ill in bed.

The prosecution will focus its questioning on what caused him to change the method of selection and to rearrange screening sessions for personal communications service (PCS) providers, how he received money from LG Telecom which won the bid and his connections with former President Kim Young-Sam`s son Hyun-Chul and deputy director of the then Agency for National Security Planning (now the National Intelligence Service), Kim Ki-Sup.

Lee was accused of favoring LG Telecom in the course of selecting the PCS provider in return for a bribe of 30 million won from the company, and abusing official power to influence the screening procedures to benefit his favorite bidder. In October 1997, Lee left for Hawaii at the invitation of the East-West Center, and did not return home as a prosecution inquiry got underway here in April the following year into his alleged implication in the case of irregularities regarding the selection of the PCS provider.

Yonhap