Kim Eun-Sung Reported to Kwon Roh-Kap

It has been exposed on May 1 that former supreme council member of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) Kwon Roh-Kap has been briefed by second deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Kim Eun-Sung in July 2000 about the irregularities of CEO of Future City Environment Choi Kyu-Sun, which raises suspicions of the circumstances and contents of the report.

The prosecution summoned former supreme member Kwon in the day to probe on whether Kwon received a total of 0.1 billion Won from CEO of MCI Korea Jin Seung-Hyun including fifty million Won each transferred through former MDP official Choi Taek-Kon and former deputy director Kim in March and July 2000.

Reports on irregularities of Choi Kyu-Sun: According to the first special prosecution office (chief prosecutor Park Young-Kwan) of the Seoul District Public Prosecutor`s Office, former deputy director Kim admitted visiting in July 2000 the house of former supreme council member Kwon who was a standing advisor of MDP at that time, and reporting public opinions concerning Mr. Choi .

Former supreme council member Kwon also spoke about the visit during his appearance before the prosecution, `Former deputy director Kim called at me to report the information related with me, during which various criticism against Choi was delivered.`

It is known that former deputy director Kim also reported to the Blue House about the issues concerning Mr. Choi and the third son Hong-Gul of President Kim Dae-Jung.

In relation to this, some raised concern that the Blue House may have neglected taking measures even though the issues of Mr. Choi and Hong-Gul have been well known for a long time.

The prosecution is probing whether the report of former deputy director Kim contained allegation of various influence peddling of Mr. Choi in matters such as the lottery operator selection by taking advantage of Hong-Gul`s presence.

The prosecution is reviewing whether to add charges against former deputy director Kim of violations of the NIS Act and the NIS Employee Act, which prohibit political involvement of NIS.

Suspicion of bribery and political fund raising by former supreme council member Kwon: Former deputy director Kim stated before the prosecution, `When I reported to former supreme council member Kwon about Choi, I gave fifty million Won belonging to Jin in return for thwarting the investigation of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). `

The prosecution is also known to have secured a testimony of Mr. Jin, `I gave fifty million Won to Choi Taek-Kon in the middle of March 2000, requesting him to relay the money to Mr. Kwon.`

The prosecution summoned Choi Taek-Kon to probe whether fifty million Won was actually transferred to former supreme council member Kwon. Mr. Choi had been arrested in December last year in charges of receiving 159 million Won from Jin in return for thwarting the investigation of FSS, but freed on bail recently.

But, former supreme council member Kwon denied flatly the charges of bribery, `The story that I received money is a false fabrication of Jin Seung-Hyun gang members, and I have never met Choi Taek-Kon since the launch of the current regime.`

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com