Acting Premier Chang Has Made No Interest Payments

Another question has been raised on August 23, 2002 concerning the credentials of Chang Dae-hwan, the acting Premier. He is said to have obtained 4 internal special loans available only to executives from The Maekyung Daily (MK), where he was president, from January of 2000 to June of 2001. The total amounted to 2.39 billion won (approximately $2 million). But it is said that he has not paid any interests on the principle. Prior to this speculation, the MK once explained, “The interest provided by the law was applied to the loans Mr. Chang has made.”

On August 23, Rep. Um Ho-sung of Grand National Party (GNP) on the Approval Committee contended, “ According to the copies of the transaction records of Chang’s account, Chang has not made any interest payments ever since he first borrowed 550 million won from his company in January of 2000. Thus, it is possible that Mr. Chang has not paid a dime for interest or he received a special treatment under which no interest was attached to the loans to him.”

Rep. Um also said, “We first confirmed many facts with The MK, such as the interest rate and amount of interest applied and methods of interest payment. Then, we requested that The MK hand over to us financial and tax documents concerning the loans and interest. But The MK, without any explanation, notified, ‘We have decided to decline the request.’”

On the other hand, documents show that Chang has paid interests on the loans he made from We Bank, 12 million won each month via auto payment. On March 7, Chang borrowed 2.39 billion won from the bank with a lien on the MK’s savings account.

Rep. Lee Won-hyung of the GNP on the same committee issued a press release on August 23. Lee suspected that a special favor was given to Chang by saying, “According to the 2000-2001 auditing report of The MK, it loaned in 2000 from CH Bank and Kookmin Bank 16 billion won ($1.3 million) and 17 billion won respectively. It offered as collateral its headquarters’ building and the land for it in Ohkum Dong. But the amounts loaned well exceeded the evaluated values of them by 24 times and 6 times respectively. The building was worth 747 million won and the land worth about 2.6 billion won.

In response, The MK explained, “We have offered other items as collateral. Along with the building and land in Ohkum Dong, we put a lien on our old headquarters at 51 Pil 1 Ga, Choong Gu, Seoul, and the new headquarters at 30 Pil 1 Ga. In sum, the value of the collateral offered was greater than the money we borrowed. Mr. Chang just acted as provided by the company rules.”

In the meanwhile, Acting Premier Chang conceded as to the false move-in registration, “I did it wrong. I should have thought of it more carefully. I think I was blinded by the desire to give more qualified education to my children.”

Jong-Hoon Lee Seung-Ryun Kim taylor55@donga.com srkim@donga.com