1.1 Billion Won Possible to Have Gone Through Mr. Choi

As Choi Do-sul, the former presidential secretary for general affairs, received an arrest warrant on October 15, denying the compensation of the funds and insisting that it was only political funds regarding the case of illegal fund transfer from SK, the scandal will continue to be controversial over the characteristic of funds and the final recipient of the money.

The prosecution revealed that Mr. Choi received 1.1 billion won from SK through a person named Lee (66), the senior classmate in the same high school as President Roh Moo-hyun, after last year’s presidential election with a solicitation of “take care of SK.”

The prosecution made an application of both mediation and accepting funds on specified crime aggravation punishment and a violation of political funds law with regard to his receiving illegal funds from SK.

The prosecution made a judicial judgment of “circumstances concur” which the funds, accepted by Mr. Choi, could be an equivalent of inclusive solicitation or mere political funds without any compensation.

“Circumstances concur” applies to cases in which an act falls under several crimes. When someone kills many people by exploding a bomb, three types of crimes are actually performed: murder, using an explosive, and infanticide. This is an example of “circumstances concur.” The court of justice punishes only one crime, but it should be the most severe one.

It is a point of view of people from both inside and outside the legal circles that the prosecution has chosen “the excellent application” because it is expected that there will be a strong dispute every time a new suspicion beyond this case is aroused when the prosecution conclude that his action is a personal bribery.

However, as the violation of political funds law is made applicable to Mr. Choi, the debate on the final recipient of the money will not stop.

During last year’s presidential election, Mr. Choi supported President Roh as an aide and was in charge of accounts of the Election Counterplan Committee in Busan for the Millennium Democratic Party.

Consequently, the question is raised that were the funds from SK used for President Roh, even though the fact was Mr. Choi actually took the money himself.

The reason Mr. Choi stood with his opinion of political funds’ characteristic after his attendance on prosecution is not quite satisfied. Regarding this, it is rumored from a corner of the prosecution that Mr. Choi aimed to say, “The money from SK was not headed to me.”

If Mr. Choi keep insisting that the illegal funds from SK was not provided for him, it is not impossible to go into the situation President Roh may have to elucidate it himself. Under these circumstances, it is not assured that public will be easily convinced of the conclusion of Mr. Choi being the final recipient of the money.

A person from the legal world pointed out, “Since the prosecution doesn’t have a strong will to examine the truth and investigating the characteristic of the money, it ambiguously punished the compensation characteristic of Mr. Choi’s bribery act.

It is expected that this controversy will be heightened if it is confirmed that Mr. Choi didn’t use the funds personally but instead for President Roh.

11. Suspicion that Song Doo-yul Entered North Korea with Secret Passport Issued by North Korea

The first public safety division (Oh Se-hun, superintendent public prosecutor) which scrutinized the event of Song Doo-yul’s violating the National Security Law, at the Seoul district public prosecutor’s office, on October 15 announced that they were investigating the details of the incident because they concluded that after acquiring German citizenship, Song entered North Korea two or three times by using a passport issued secretly from North Korea.

The prosecution said, “When we collectively reviewed the statements by Song, the North`s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper’s report, and other evidence, it is presumed that Song entered North Korea at a specific day. But a time gap appeared because there was no evidence showing his North Korea visit in his German passport. We doubt that Song used the North Korean passport, which was issued with the name of Kim Chul-soo (candidate in the political division, Rodong party, North Korea) or a third person, together. “

The prosecution reported that even though they pressed hard and summoned Song seven times on this day to find out whether he used the passport of North Korea and the details of the affair, Song denied the fact he used the North Korean passport.

The prosecution considered that it was very possible for Song to use a duplicate passport, judging that if a foreigner visits North Korea informally owing to an invitation from North Korea, the foreigner usually enters North Korea with a North Korean passport under an assumed name by passing through a middle point such as Russia or Beijing as a rule.

The prosecution made clear that they found out the fact while investigating Song’s visit to North Korea, and they concluded the number of times of Song’s visit to North Korea was actually 20, two more than the 18 visits that the National Intelligence Service had indicated.

But the defense attorney of Song contradicted these findings, saying, “Though Song entered North Korea 18 or 19 times as his German passport records shows, but on protocol it said that he entered North Korea more that twenty times. So I demand a correction. “

On the other hand, on that day the prosecution clarified that they were under examination because Song submitted a document titled “I Clear up My Thoughts”, which includes leaving the Rodong party and abandoning his German citizenship. The prosecution also collectively examined his background and the attitude with which Song submitted this document. The prosecution will confirm the final policy about the decision to treat Song with a conference with the Ministry of Justice after one more summons investigation this week.

Wi-Yong Jung viyonz@donga.com