Posted June. 24, 2003 21:56,
Independent counsel Song Doo-hwan, who have led investigations into the secret transfer to North Korea, is expected to announce his teams investigation results and indict Park Jie-won, former culture and tourism minister, Lim Dong-won, former intelligence agency chief, and Chung Mong-hun, chairman of Hyundai Asan, on charges of masterminding a secret money transfer to Pyongyang on Wednesday.
The independent counsels team decided to indict only 8 out of the total 17 people engaged in the money transfer. Lee Ki-ho, former President Kims economic policy advisor, Lee Keun-young, former Korea Development Bank (KDB) governor, former National Intelligence Service official Choi Kyu-baik, Hyundai executive Kim Yoon-kyu and former KDB deputy governor Park Sang-bae were already indicted. The independent counsel decided not to indict former Hyundai executive Lee Ik-chi.
The independent counsels team plans to indict the former culture and tourism minister on charges that he influenced KDB to extend loans to Hyundai through former presidents economic policy advisor. However, the investigation team will refer to the prosecution the probe into the charges that Park Jie-won had received 15 billion won from Hyundai in secret funds.
The investigation team also plans to indict without physical detention former intelligence chief Lim and Chung Mong-hun on charges of engaging in the illegal money transfer (violation of the former foreign exchange transaction law and the inter-Korea exchange and cooperation law). It is still considering adding charges of ordering fabricating financial documents in order to raise funds to be wired to the North for Chung Mong-hun.
"Lee Ik-chi was sued by Park Jie-won for libel, so the problems related to Lee had better be treated later," an official of the team said on Tuesday, hinting its intention to exclude Lee from the indictment.
With respect to the nature of the money wired to Pyongyang, the independent counsels team concluded that the money had been part of Hyundai`s economic cooperation funds and that the transfer had contributed a lot to the historic inter-Korean summit meeting. It is reported that the investigation team reflected on whether to explicitly talk about the nature of the money. Meanwhile, the investigation team plans to allow to depart from the nation those who are not related to the 15 billion in secret funds given to Park Jie-won among the rest 9 people, by lifting the ban.