"(S. Korean) Cash Transfer (to North Korea) Designed to Dodge CIA" (Intriguing!)

Chosun Ilbo Daily Newspaper from South Korea (in English) ^ | 16 May 2003 | J.H. Choi (Chosun Ilbo Daily Newspaper in English)

[AmericanInTokyo]

South Korean [fmr. Pres. Kim Dae Jung] Cash Transfer to North Korea Designed to Dodge American CIA

by Choi Jae-hyeok (jhchoi@chosun.com)

The (S. Korean) National Intelligence Service worked to make sure its transfer of $200 million to North Korea would go undetected by U.S. intelligence authorities according to statements by the S. Korean NIS and banking officials obtained by the special prosecutor team investigating the cash-for-summit scandal. Because of the detail involved, this conflicts with the Pres. Kim Dae-jung government's claim in February that the cash was sent as part of the Hyundai Group's economic cooperation projects in North Korea.

The statements by officials at the (S. Korean) intelligence agency and the Korean Exchange Bank said the decision to send the money secretly was made at a conference attended by officials from the NIS and the bank.

The bank selected China Bank as the conduit, an insider said, because the Central Intelligence Agency and its Office of Foreign Assets Control would be unable to trace cash the flows; the money was then sent from China Bank's Seoul branch to a North Korean account in Macao.

The prosecutors also said that another batch of money sent to the North was moved to avoid detection by U.S. authorities - the $100 million that Hyundai Electronics subsidiaries in the United States and Japan sent to accounts in Europe and Southeast Asia. The money was eventually sent to North Korea through the HSBC account of Hyundai Construction's London subsidiary.

[AmericanInTokyo]

My, isn't this just grand. Shows that there are Clinton-type appeaser/opportunists in East Asia, too! On the hair-trigger Korean peninsula!

Posted in 'celebration' of S. Korean President Roh's current visit to the United States and his shortened meeting with Bush as payback for his anti-US tirade that got him elected in South Korea by masses of spoiled and naive university students.

[Rodney King]

We should just pull out and let North Korea over-run them.

[MEG33]

Sounds like the Jesse Jackson school of foreign affairs.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yep. Might not go down too well, though, with the nearly 50,000 US [non military] civilians in Korea right now stationed on business, studying, researchers, selling American products to keep the American worker employed, missionaries spreading the word. You know, that kinda' thing.....

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Shakedown", for sure. it was all in an effort to snag a Nobel Peace Prize for Kim Dae Jung. Jimmy got his. I am sure Clinton bribed and fixed a lot of deals that are now crap on George Bush's front doorsteps, all in an effort to get that little peace prize. Morons and traitors!

[mabelkitty]

Time to get Hyundai out of the U.S.

Time to get our troops out of South Korea. They have now chosen sides, and something doesn't sound right here. Why would South Korea engage us with North Korea when they are laundering money to them?

[Conservababe]

South Korea is scared of the notion that North Korea will fall and they will be a united country again.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Put down your shotgun for a minute. Pick you the fine bore rifle.

Just as Clinton's antics in eight years cannot be called "America's actions", the traitorous antics of Kim Dae Jung and Roh Mu Hyon cannot necessarily speak for all of South Korea (there is still a vibrant, anti communist opposition and Roh did not win by a big margin).

Actually, there has been a lot of 'face loss' on this, and all of it has been on the other side of the table with the appeasers. The US administration does not trust them, and now they are seen as 'sellouts' in the eyes of radical Korean students that helped put them in power.

[Mister Baredog]

South Korea is scared of the notion that North Korea will fall and they will be a united country again.

BINGO! It is a HUGH fear!

[Thud]

ping

[Mamzelle]

re: Of interest, SK/US

[Mamzelle]

Considering that the SK economy is going gangbusters (5%/yr), I think they can afford to protect Seoul themselves. The young men can serve a little longer, and tax themselves a little more, rather than spend so much time in video game cafes in make-believe wars.

[AmericanInTokyo]

And they (s. korean administration) don't like it a damned bit!

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #5

The only upside of this sorry saga is that most of my opinions on Kim Dae-Jung have been vindicated.

The only suspicions of mine which are yet to be verified are:

• Part of the money supposedly sent to N. Korea was rerouted to Kim Dae-Jung's political fund by his government or N. Koreans
• Kim Dae-Jung was compromised by N. Koreans in some way or he is a closet commmie sympathizer.

Believing even one of these allegations will earn me the title of "irrational ultrarightwing nut" here. But I have been right about the nature of Kim Jong-Il regime and Kim Dae-Jung among other things. So, at this point, I think that at least one of them could turn out to be true.