`Ex-Spy Chief Grilled on Roh Bribery Scandal`

Prosecutors yesterday said they questioned the country’s former spy chief twice on if former President Roh Moo-hyun gave him instructions on the million dollars Roh allegedly received from a businessman or received a report on the suspicion.

Kim Man-bok, former chief of the National Intelligence Service, is alleged to have known how the money from Park Yeon-cha, chairman of Taekwang Industry, was channeled to the former president’s son and daughter.

Prosecutors also have questioned former intelligence officers who served in the United States at the time of the money’s suspected delivery.

Former First Lady Kwon Yang-sook will be questioned behind closed doors soon on how she sent more than 300,000 dollars to her son and daughter and her testimony that she borrowed 300 million won (232,558 U.S. dollars) from Park.

Prosecutors said they found that a notebook computer containing the software that former President Roh developed was delivered to a venture start-up that his son Gun-ho is believed to own.

The computer is known to have been sent from the presidential office to the company via a delivery company in January last year before being delivered back to the president’s office Feb. 4 last year. Prosecutors said part of the five million U.S. dollars that Park claimed to have sent to former President Roh in February last year was invested in his son’s company.

Therefore, prosecutors said the computer’s delivery could prove that the former president received the five million dollars from Park.

Investigators plan to report to Prosecutor General Lim Chai-jin today on their probe into suspicions surrounding former President Roh. Lim is expected to make a final decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for Roh, but the decision could be delayed until next week.

dnsp@donga.com