Ahn Dae-hee and Song Kwang-soo Will Not Appear as Witnesses

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office reached an internal agreement on Tuesday that Prosecutor General Song Kwang-soo and other witnesses involved in the investigation will not appear before the public hearing as appointed witnesses.

Chief prosecutor Ahn Dae-hee of the Central Investigation Agency of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office reflected his thoughts, saying, “The investigation is not yet over, and if a hearing will be held in this circumstance, it is likely that the investigation will face pressure. It will also be a bad example to let people involved in the investigation attend the hearing when the investigation is still ongoing.”

Meanwhile, the Central Investigation Agency revealed that day that it will summon Rep. Kim Kyeong-jae of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and interrogate him in regards to allegations that the Dongwon Group provided five billion won to Roh Moo-hyun’s campaign in the 2002 election.

The prosecution will call on the MDP representative who accused President Roh and Uri Party leader Chung Dong-young of illegal fund raising during the race and will probe into the source and material evidence of his account.

The prosecutors are also focusing their investigation on other possible illegal funds besides the 960 million won of expedient funds offered to Roh’s campaign under the name of officials of Samsung and Hyundai Motors group.

“I would like to say clearly that the investigation over Samsung and Hyundai Motors has not yet finished,” said Ahn regarding this matter.

The prosecution will re-issue an arrest warrant for Grand National Party Rep. Park Sang-kyu early this weekend. A prior arrest warrant for Park was withdrawn on January 30.

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