Rep. Chung Took 600 Million Won of Bonds

The Central Investigation Department (Chief Public Prosecutor Ahn Dae-hee) of the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office hinted at the possibility of a “conditional reconsideration” on Thursday regarding the complete exemption of investigation on illegal campaign funds if the Grand National Party donates the money they receive from selling the Cheonan Training Center and others to the government.

Chief Public Prosecutor Ahn said, “I have given orders to the investigation team to examine the possibility and the legal problems of returning the money to the government if GNP wishes to contribute the money from selling Cheonan Training Center to the government.”

The prosecutor took into account the disputes that could rise from legitimacy of the investigation, prolonging of the investigation, and other pragmatic issues and their action can be interpreted as a kind of a “compromise” that they will not raise any issues involving the specific usage of the illicit funds as long as the GNP donates the money to the national treasury

However, the prosecutor will soon summon Lee Jae-chang and Um Ho-seong, the newly elected governor of GNP who has already been indicted, and inquire whether they have misappropriated the 200 million won of illicit funds that the central party offered them for personal use.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor called Uri Party Rep. Chung Dae-chul on this day, the former election team leader of Roh Moo-hyun’s campaign and probed into the exact usage of the 600 million worth of bonds after finding that he had received the bonds from Lee Jung-keun, president of Buyoung Corp. Moreover, prosecutor said that they had attained the testimony from former Millennium Democratic Party Rep. Seo Young-hoon, saying, “I took 60 sheets of 10 million won worth of housing bonds from President Lee in early December 2002, just before the election and delivered it to Rep. Chung.” The prosecution sent former Rep. Seo home for the moment. Prosecution also charged Park Chan-beob, president of Asiana Airlines, and Oh Nam-su, president of the Strategic Management team in the Kumho Asiana group on this day without custody for offering illegal political funding to both government and opposition party during the presidential election.

According to the prosecution, President Park and others handed five sheets of 100 million won worth of certificate of deposit (CD) and others totaling 1.7 billion won worth of illegal funds to Kim Young-il, former secretary general of the GNP, right before the election from November to December 2002. They are also charged with providing 600 million won of checks and bonds to the MDP’s Committee Chair Lee Sang-soo and 100 million won of bonds to MDP Rep. Park Byung-yoon.

However, the prosecution had not charged Park Sam-ku, president of Kumho Asiana group, saying, there was “no evidence.”

jin0619@donga.com