Prosecution backs away from probe into NSP funding scandal

The Central Investigation Headquarters of the Supreme Public Prosecutor¡¯s Office (SPPO) decided not to summon or take legal action against most of the politicians who took money from the nation's top intelligence agency through Rep. Kang Sam-Jae of the opposition Grand National Party (GNP). The politicians reportedly thought the money was subsidies from the party for their general election campaigns.

Deputy chief of the SPPO Shin Seung-Nam said Tuesday that most politicians said they did not know the campaign money they received from Kang came from the former Agency for National Security Planning (NSP), now the National Intelligence Service.

The SPPO will confirm who received how much through whom, but will not summon or take legal action against the recipients, Shin said. Confirmation will be made through their testimony as witnesses. He also said that the SPPO has concluded an examination of whether it is possible to recover the NSP budget funds they received.

Earlier, the SPPO had said that it would attempt to prosecute the politicians on suspicion of receiving stolen goods and seek to have them refund the payments after summoning and questioning them. Instead, the SPPO will subpoena and investigate those politicians involved in obtaining the campaign funds from the NSP and distributing it to candidates.

Depending on the results of the investigation, the SPPO will prosecute any politicians suspected of having had a hand in the embezzlement of state money, SPPO officials said. However, the number of the politicians to be indicted will be low in light of the nature of the case, they added.

The officials said they have not yet confirmed who would be investigated besides Rep. Kang and Lee Ki-sup, former NSP deputy chief. The SPPO plans to work with the Justice Ministry to recover the money from politicians who are prosecuted or those who received cash in the full knowledge that it came from the NSP budget.