Rep. Sul Met with Senior Presidential Secretary after Disclosure of Bribery Allegations

It has been already confirmed that former Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Kim Hyun-sup had tipped off the prosecution on allegations of Grand National Party former Chairman Lee Hoi-chang. Kim, who had received 200,000 dollars in bribes from Millennium Democratic Party lawmaker Sul-Hun, was on hand at a meeting with then Senior Presidential Secretary Kim Han-jung and then Vice Mayor of Seoul city Kim Hee-whan on April 20 last year right after the MDP lawmaker had unveiled the allegations.

As a result, public suspicion is mounting that Chung Wa Dae was systematically involved in the disclosure of the allegations concerning the former opposition leader.

Cha Dong-min, chief prosecutor at the Seoul District Public Prosecutor`s Office, disclosed on March 31 that former Seoul City Vice Mayor Kim had testified during an interrogation which took place last year that former Senior Presidential Secretary Kim Han-jung was there.

According to the Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office, the former vice mayor of Seoul testified that he had met with Presidential Secretary Kim at his request at a secret location downtown Seoul over lunch, and after, had met MDP Rep. Sul, along with the former presidential secretary. The former vice mayor of Seoul admitted during an interview with the Dong-a daily newspaper that his testimony in the Seoul District Prosecutor`s Office was true.

The former vice mayor of Seoul said that at the meeting, Rep. Sul had asked him who his closest ties were concerning Choi Kyu-sun, who was at the center of the allegation. In response, the former vice mayor said that was Choi`s aunt. Former Presidential Secretary Kim then asked the former vice mayor to let him meet with Choi`s relative.

However, it has been found that Choi`s aunt didn`t want to meet with the former presidential secretary.

An official at the Seoul district prosecutor`s office said, “At that time, the prosecution didn`t summon former presidential secretary Kim by concluding circumstantial evidence told that he was not directly involved in the scandal.

The Seoul district prosecutor`s office unveiled that prior to Rep. Sul`s disclosure of the allegations, Kim had met the former vice mayor of Seoul and asked for help in obtaining a recording that contained details of the 200,000-dollar bribery case and also questioned about whether then President Kim`s son Kim Hong-gul was involved in the Choi Kyu-sun scandal.

However, the former presidential secretary dismissed suspicions that he tipped off the 200,000-dollar bribery case to Rep. Sul in his written testimony submitted to the Seoul prosecution in October last year by maintaining that it was true he met with the former vice mayor, but didn`t inform Rep. Sul of the allegations.

Sung-Won Park Sang-Rok Lee swpark@donga.com myzodan@donga.com