Posted on 02/02/2003 3:46:50 PM PST by Sawdring
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea (news - web sites)'s main opposition party asked President Kim Dae-jung (news - web sites) on Thursday to clear up suspicions that his government spent nearly $200 million to "buy" its crowning achievement: a historic summit with North Korea (news - web sites) that helped Kim win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Allegations of payoffs to the North first arose last year but grew more substantial with media reports that a subsidiary of the Hyundai business group sent funds to North Korea about a week before the summit.
On Thursday, government auditors confirmed that Hyundai — closely tied to Kim's policy of rapprochement with North Korea — borrowed $186 million from a government-run bank shortly before the summit and used it for unclear purposes in the communist state.
"We could not find out for what specific projects Hyundai used the money," Sohn Seung-tae, deputy director of the audit agency, said of its investigation. "Hyundai failed to provide data."
The heightened scandal hits Kim's presidency in its final days, casting doubt on his success with the North just as his latest, and last, diplomatic project there — to find a peaceful solution to the furor over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program — made little progress.
Two Seoul envoys to the North, representing Kim and his successor, President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, returned from a trip to Pyongyang having apparently failed to budge communist leaders in their stalemate with the United States.
Opposition politicians have criticized President Kim's "sunshine" policy of engagement with North Korea, saying he pampered the Stalinist country with economic aid and other concessions.
"This proves that this government's biggest achievement, the June 15 South-North summit, was bought with money," opposition party spokesman Park Jong-hee said in a statement.
Both Hyundai and the South Korean president have denied allegations of payoffs, and the business group had no immediate reaction to Thursday's disclosure.
Hyundai launched a series of high-profile, government-backed investment projects in the North in 1998, but the projects — including a plan for an industrial park and a tourism project in the North's Diamond Mountain — incurred heavy losses.
The political opposition demanded that prosecutors investigate whether Hyundai used the money to bribe North Korea's communist government, or if Kim's government funneled the money through Hyundai to pay off the North for holding the summit.
"President Kim must explain before the public the suspicion about a behind-the-scene deal with North Korea and apologize," party spokesman Park said.
The opposition party also denounced the audit report as a cover-up.
The auditors said they had no legal ground to prosecute Hyundai officials, and President Kim, who leaves office in late February after a five-year term, said he opposed prosecutors investigating the case.
"If the money was spent on promoting South-North economic cooperation, it is not desirable to make it a subject of judicial judgment for the sake of national interests," Kim was quoted as saying by his spokeswoman, Park Sun-sook.
"The unique nature of South-North relations has forced me to make numerous tough decisions as the head of state, and I always put the interests of our people and nation at the forefront."
Kim, who won the Nobel Prize chiefly for his efforts to reconcile with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, said Hyundai's joint projects in the North have "the nature of national projects" as well as being private ventures.
Geir Lundestad, the secretary for the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Oslo, Norway, said Thursday the group had no comment on the allegations against Kim, noting they had not been substantiated.
The opposition first made the allegations of a payoff to North Korea last year, saying that all or part $330 million drawn by Hyundai in loans from the state-run Korea Development Bank might have gone to the North.
The company was in deep financial trouble when it received the loans, which it repaid when its finances improved.
In his last months in office, Kim has insisted that South Korea continue to engage North Korea with dialogue and economic exchanges, although its chief ally the United States said it would not reward Pyongyang for "blackmailing" the world.
The apparent failure of the South Korean mission to Pyongyang earlier this week raised the possibility that the U.N. nuclear agency may soon take the issue to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions to pressure the impoverished North to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Feeling some heat, Mr. Lundestad! They are not substantiated because the Kim Dae-Jung gov has been hampering the investigation for months. A few months ago, they issue categorical denials. Now they say it is nothing wrong and we need to move on for Korea's sake. Sounds Clintonian.
The total sum of money funneled to the North is reported to be 2 trillion won (1.5+ billion dollars.) Most of it was laundered through Europe. Kim Jong-Il regime got them in Euros. That is said to be why N. Korea changed its currency foreign transactions from dollar to Euro among other reasons.
With this money, the regime was able to finance the completion of high explosive denotators for nukes. It also bought tanks and fighter planes from Kazakstan with this money.
Kim Dae-Jung and Clinton have a lot in common. They sold out their countries to hog political glory, leaving their countrymen to suffer disastrous consequences.
Do you have a source for this? A FR link perhaps????
I think I read it from two different Korean media sources. Neither version is available in English. One is from the account of whistleblower who used to work at S. Korean intelligence agency. His account was taken up by Dong-A Ilbo(www.donga.com) and the Korean conservative internet medium independent.co.kr. Here is the latter article (in Korean). I am sorry that there is no English version available.
Kind of like the way they dropped the inquiry into some of the Clinton actions...
The weasel word used is actually "suspended". Not long ago, they vowed to be politically independent. Now we know that they did not mean it.:) Typical !
Reminds me of this:
Never pay anyone Dane-Geld, no matter how trifling the cost. For the end of that game is oppression and shame and the nation that plays it is lost.
I have just sent you the link which showed up in FR. It is from UPI. go HERE.
Remember that Clinton showered praise over Kim Dae-Jung. Their connection must be more than skin-deep. Both are publicity-hogging sciopaths who are willing to sell out their countries for it. Kim Dae-Jung has tried to fashion himself as some sort of "Ghandi" figure of Korea for more than 2 decades. He zealously sought for the international recognition of his dream, partly because many in S. Korea did not buy "Ghandi" thing. He is a twsited man who should never have been a president just like Clinton.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.