Former naval chief probed for corruption scandal

A joint government investigation team summoned Hwang Ki-chul, 58, a former naval chief, to question him over his alleged involvement in the corruption scandal related to the Tongyeong, the Navy’s state-of-the-art salvage ship. The investigation team considers requesting an arrest warrant to Hwang on charges of embezzlement.

The former naval chief in a black suit appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday morning. When reporters asked him about various suspicions, he gave a short answer, saying, “I’ll explain them to prosecutors.”

The joint investigation team probed whether he played a leading role in inflating the price of the Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) to be loaded on to the Tongyeong from 200 million (177,510 U.S. dollars) to 4.1 billion won (3.6 million dollars) while he was leading the naval ship business team of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) in 2009.

The investigation team believes that Hwang approved documents although he knew that the test result of SONAR was fabricated. Like the ex-naval chief, it will add embezzlement charges to a former colonel, 57, who is already accused for allegedly forging the test result when he was a leader of the DAPA.

djc@donga.com