Reps. Park Ju-chun and Lee Hun-pyong Under Warrant

The Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecution Office announced yesterday that it issued warrants to arrest Rep. Park Ju-chun of the Grand National Party and Rep. Lee Hun-pyong of the Millennium Democratic Party on charges of taking bribes related to the Hyundai secret fund scandal.

As a consequence, the number of lawmakers waiting for parliamentary approval for arrest has increased to six, including Reps. Chung Dae-chul and Park Ju-sun of the Uri Party and Reps. Park Myung-hwan and Park Jae-wook of the GNP.

According to the prosecution, Rep. Park Ju-chun, who was at the time a member of the Political Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, allegedly received 50 million won from Kim Yoon-kyu, the President of Hyundai Construction, as a request to exempt Hyundai Asan’s chairman, Chung Mong-hun, from the list of testifiers in the national audit in September 2000.

Meanwhile, Rep. Lee worked as the MDP’s secretary general on the Political Affairs Committee in the National Assembly in 2000. After having been asked for a favor on Chairman Chung’s case by Hyundai, Lee allegedly helped Hyundai Construction receive building agreements from two construction companies for projects amounting to 230 million won and 11.5 billion won respectively.

Regarding the allegations, Rep. Lee denied them by saying that he had never been asked for a favor by Hyundai regarding witnesses for the Assembly audit.

The prosecution also charged Rep. Lim Jin-chul of the GNP and Mayor of Kwangju City, Park Kwang-tae, without physical restraint. They are suspected of having received 30 million each from Hyundai for the same request.

As for Rep. Park Ju-sun of the MDP, who has been under an arrest warrant since last June for his involvement in suspected lobbying on behalf of Nara Investment Banking Corp. to keep it from going out of business, prosecutors are reviewing whether to request a new warrant by including additional charge for accepting Hyundai Group’s secret funds, or to combine the charges at the moment of indictment.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com