Rep. Park Sang-Kyu Suspected of Receiving Two Hundred Million Won

The Central Investigation Department (chief public prosecutor Ahn Dae-hee) in the Supreme Public Prosecutors` Office conducted an investigation on a case of illegal fund-raising for the 2002 presidential election on January 29 and summoned Rep. Park Sang-Kyu of the Grand National Party on charges of illegally receiving 240 million won from companies during the presidential election campaign.

At the same time of the summoning, the prosecution also conducted a search and seizure on Rep. Park’s house in Bupyung-Dong, Bupyung-Gu, Inchon, and has been analyzing secured scratch papers and bank books.

According to the prosecution, Rep. Park is suspected of having received 200 million won from Daewoo E&C Co., Ltd and 40 million won from High-tech Housing, a building company of the super high-rise apartment building “Trump World” in Yeouido, Seoul, while he was president of the Millennium Democratic Party support group around September or October 2002 before moving his party registration to the Grand National Party.

That day, the prosecution didn’t allow Rep. Park to leave and conducted an all-night investigation because of the possibility that he might have misappropriated money or have received additional money, and they plan to decide on January 30 whether or not to issue arrest warrants.

The prosecution, that day, also summoned Rep. Park Byung-Yoon of the Millennium Democratic Party on charges of illegally receiving one billion won for the presidential election from Kumho Group and investigated his own statement that he had delivered the money to Rep. Han Hwa-gap.

With this, the prosecution obtained clues that BooYoung Corporation, a construction company, provided illegal election fund to the government party and the opposition party during the 2002 presidential election, and at the same day, conducted a search and seizure on an office in Yeouido-Dong, Yeongdeungpo-Gu, Seoul.

Regarding this, Rep. Kim Kyung-Jae of the Millennium Democratic Party argued at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee meeting that Dongwon F&B handed five billion won in political funds to candidate Roh Moo-hyun’s camp. Prosecutor Moon Hyo-Nam of Supreme Public Prosecutors` Office said, “There is no clue found in the investigation process, but we are going to thoroughly investigate it if base materials are presented.”

Meanwhile, that day in the afternoon, an inspection meeting was executed on Rep. Shin Kyung-shik of the Grand National Party who was issued an arrest warrant on charges of illegally receiving one billion won from Lotte Group during the 2002 presidential election campaign.

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