Kim Woo-Choong of the Daewoo Group left Korea by Persuasion of the President Kim

Being escaping from Korea, a former chairman Kim Woo-Choong of the Daewoo Group had an interview with Fortune Magazine of US on January 22, and he insisted that he did not escape from an investigation of the prosecution, but he was persuaded by the president Kim Dae-Jung to leave Korea.

The Fortune Magazine reported, “The president Kim persuaded Kim Woo-Choong to leave Korea for a while by calling him directly before a workout. The president Kim persuaded him not to be involved in a debt restructuring process on condition that the president Kim and the high-ranking officials of the government exempted him from legal responsibilities for Daewoo collapse and gave him a management right of Daewoo Motor after coming back to Korea in 1999.” Kim Woo-Choong admitted his mistake for unreasonable extension in relation to Daewoo collapse in the interview conducted four times in one area of the Southeast Asia. However, he said that the government had partial responsibilities. He insisted, “the government is driving me as a defrauder but I’ve never thought that I would commit an absurdity even in my dream.”

In this relation, the high ranking official of Cheong Wa Dae office of Korea said on January 23, “We will not cope with words of the former chairman Kim.” He didn’t make mention of an assertion of the former chairman Kim.

Besides, Park Jong-Hee, spokesman of Hanara party said, “The government must clear up a substance of unions of politics and economics between the current government and Daewoo Group by arresting him right now. Then, the government must hold him responsible for the Daewoo collapse and the flight of assets.” The spokesman Park insisted through comments, “The departure persuasion of the president Kim concerned about an initial political funds scandal of the current administration could be true.”

Hye-Yoon Park Min-Hyuk Park parkhyey@donga.com mhpark@donga.com