The Prosecution Will Investigate Jin`s Political Funds

The Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office, who is reinvestigating `Jin Seung-Hyun Gate` and `Jung Hyun-Joon Gate` announced yesterday that it is likely to investigate Jin Seung-Hyun, former Vice Chairman of MCI Korea, for his alleged lobbying activities in political and governmental circles before the parliamentary elections in April 13th last year.

An official of the prosecution said, "The prosecution cannot say that the investigation will be limited in the lobby cases for escaping from punishment because Jin and Jung Sung-Hong, a former economy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), are involved in both the lobbying activities in political and governmental circles and for escaping from punishment."

The prosecution, however, announced that the goal of current investigation is to reveal the flow of the lobby funds of 1.25 billion won that Jin gave to Kim Jae-Hwan, former Chairman of MCI Korea, in order to lobby for his avoidance from punishment.

It is known that the prosecution got the identity of a person who witnessed the meeting of Kim Jae-Hwan and Rep. Kim Bang-Rim of the New Millennium Democratic Party (NMDP) in Oct. 2000. The prosecution is unofficially requesting the appearance of this person.

The prosecution said, "It is not clear whether or not this person witnessed the scene that Kim gave money to Rep. Kim. We have to investigate Kim for clarity."

An official of the prosecution implied the possibility that the prosecution might investigate Rep. Kim prior to its investigation of Kim. He said, "We cannot wait endlessly for Kim`s appearance. After waiting until 23rd, we will decide to investigate Rep. Kim."

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com