Preliminary Arrest Warrants Issued to Eight Lawmakers

The Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Public Prosecutors` Office on Friday sought arrest warrants for seven lawmakers whose arrests were rejected by the National Assembly last year along with Rep. Kim Young-iel of the Grand National Party (GNP) over their alleged collection of illicit campaign funds ahead of the last presidential election.

The eight lawmakers whose arrest warrants have been requested are Choi Don-woong, Park Myung-hwan, Park Joo-cheon, Park Jae-wook , Kim Young-iel of the GNP, Park Joo-sun and Lee Hoon-pyung of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and Chyung Dai-chul of the Uri Party.

"We sought arrest warrants for the eight legislators because their corruption charges are as serious as those committed by ordinary corruption offenders," Moon Hyo-nam, a senior prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutors` Office, said.

Prosecutors included Rep. Kim who was the chief of the GNP presidential election campaign team on the warrant list, on additional charges of taking 1.07 billion won worth of unlawful campaign funds from Asiana Airlines chairman Park Chan-beop between late November 2003 to early December 2002.

Prosecutors are also tracking whether or not Kim deposited the collected money to the party account or spent it for personal reasons.

Kim is also suspected of having been involved in collecting 46.2 billion won of illegal presidential election funds from Samsung, LG, SK and Hyundai Motor while conspiring with Choi and lawyer Seo Jeong-woo (arrested and indicted), a legal advisor of former GNP leader Lee Hoi-chang, as well as Lee Jae-hyun (arrested and indicted), former GNP finance director.

Kim has surrendered on a warrant for a substance examination trial and Chyung Dai-chul, Park Joo-cheon, Park Myung-hwan, Park Joo-sun and Lee Hoon-pyung took the examination trial from 2 p.m. Friday at the Seoul District Court.

A warrant substance examination trial of Choi is to take place at the Seoul District Court at 11 a.m. Saturday, and the trial of Park Jae-wook is scheduled to take place at the Daegu District Court at 2 p.m. Monday.

Wi-Yong Jung Tae-Hoon Lee viyonz@donga.com jefflee@donga.com