Kim Hong-Gul May be Summoned as Early as This Week

The special investigative office (chief prosecutor Cha Dong-Min) of the Seoul District Public Prosecutor`s Office, which has been investigating alleged influence-peddling of the president`s third son Hong-Gul, has decided to notify the summoning of Hong-Gul as early as on May 14.

In relation to this, the prosecution disclosed on May 13, `Immediately after Hong-Gul appoints his defense lawyer, we will notify the summoning through his defense lawyer.` According to the Blue House the defense lawyer appointment of Hong-Gul will be determined soon.

Accordingly, it is estimated that Hong-Gul may enter into the country during this week and appear voluntarily before the prosecution. The prosecution has allegedly obtained a considerable volume of evidences against Hong-Gul concerning various scandals involving Choi Kyu-Sun to make it inevitable to charge a criminal indictment against Hong-Gul.

In other hand, the prosecution is intensely questioning CEO of Tiger Pools International (TPI) Song Jae-Bin whether he provided money or stocks to related officials of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) and the National Sports Promotion Foundation to lobby for securing the sports lottery operator contract.

The prosecution summoned the inspector of the foundation alias Lee and two related persons of the Korea Electronic Lottery consortium as reference witnesses to question them whether they lobbied to the MCT and the foundation and what are the targets of the lobbies. The consortium had competed for the project with TPI.

The prosecution declared in relation to the allegation of Choi Kyu-Sun`s involvement in the next fighter (FX) project and the TPI stock purchase by POSCO affiliates, `So little specific criminal suspicion or evidence has been dig out so far.`

Myoung-Gun Lee Sang-Rok Lee gun43@donga.com myzodan@donga.com