Received Money from Kim Eung-Sung

A great repercussion is expected since the prosecution officially declared that it would investigate on general affairs of the political funds of former supreme council member of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), Kwon Roh-Kap.

A related person of the Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office who is leading an investigation on election fund reception confession of MDP Rep. Kim Keun-Tae during the MDP supreme council election on August 2000 said on April 30, `Our investigation will not be limited to the political fund that Rep. Kim and others claim they received from former supreme council member Kwon, but will be expanded to newly exposed illegal activities.`

The first public security office (chief prosecutor Park Cheol-June) of the Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office, which took up the case, summoned related persons including the accounting chief of former supreme member Kwon, and promised for full fledged investigation on the sources of funds and spending items through accounts trace.

Former supreme council member Kwon allegedly transferred five to fifty million Won respectively to three candidates, in addition to Kim Keun-Tae and Chung Dong-Young, who participated in the MDP supreme council election in August 2000, and also 100 million Won for management of party chapters of the fresh caucus members of MDP during the general election on April 13, 2000.

In addition, as former supreme council member Kwon is known to have overseen the political funds of the ruling camp, the repercussion following the result of the prosecution`s probe will be greater since other politicians may be incriminated.

In related story, the first special investigation office (chief prosecutor Park Young-Kwan) of the Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office that is reinvestigating so called `Jin Seung-Hyun Gate` secured a testimony of former second deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NSI) Kim Eun-Sung that he relayed fifty million Won of Jin`s money to former supreme council member Kwon. It is known that the prosecution obtained the statements of former deputy director Kim and Jin while cross-examining them.

Additionally the prosecution is known to have secured testimonies from some scandal related persons such as former deputy director Kim, Mr. Jin, former CEO of MCI Korea Kim Jae-Hwan that some hitherto unexposed politicians have received money of Jin, and is further investigating the case.

The prosecution will summon former supreme council member Kwon on May 1 to probe on the involvement in `Jin Seung-Hyun Gate`, and then transfer Kwon to the first public security office to investigate on general political fund affairs of Kwon.

A related person of the prosecution said, `As far as the investigation on alleged bribery case against former supreme council member Kwon is rounded up, we will summon politicians including Rep. Kim Keun-Tae to inquire about suspicious parts while simultaneously conducting accounts trace.`

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com