Rep. Shin Kyung-shik Summoned for Questioning

The Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office issued an arrest warrant for Rep. Shin Kyung-shik of the Grand National Party (GNP) on Wednesday on charges of illegally having received one billion won from Lotte Group during the 2002 presidential election campaign.

The prosecution also planned to summon Rep. Park Byung-yoon of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and Rep. Park Sang-kyu of the GNP today for questioning on allegations of having raised billions of illicit funds from companies. It will decide on issuing arrest warrants for them later on.

The Seoul District Court questioned Rep. Suh Chung-won of the GNP and Rep. Lee Sang-soo of the Uri party on the same day, both of whom were suspected of having violated political funding laws.

According to prosecutors, Shin, who led the GNP’s election planning team in 2002, allegedly received two bags containing 500 million won each from Shin Dong-in, a president in planning management of the Lotte Hotel, early in December at the basement parking lot of the Lotte department store in downtown Seoul.

The prosecution is probing into the use of money with the assumption that Shin might have possibly diverted it to other purposes since it was proven that the illicit funds were not delivered to the main office.

Prosecutors are also extending the scope of investigation because of the possibility that some portion of the billions in slush funds that the Lotte Group had collected from its affiliates might have flowed into then-presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun’s camp.

Meanwhile, regarding the MDP’s suspicion that Roh’s camp received 10 billion won of illicit campaign funds, the prosecution officially requested the MDP to submit relevant sources that could back their allegation.

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