Posted on 08/03/2003 8:15:45 PM PDT by Pikamax
Beleaguered Hyundai exec kills self
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL — Chung Mong-hun, a top executive of South Korea's Hyundai conglomerate who was embroiled in a scandal over a historic 2000 summit between the two Koreas, committed suicide Monday, police and company officials said.
Chung jumped from his 12th-storey office in the Hyundai headquarters building in central Seoul, said a police officer who only gave his last name Park.
Lee Mi-kyong, a Hyundai spokeswoman, confirmed the death.
Chung's body was first found on the ground by his secretary and reported to police at around 5:50 a.m. local time, said Park, a police officer at Seoul's Chongno police station near the Hyundai headquarters.
Park said preliminary investigations showed that Chung appeared to have jumped four or five hours before his body was found.
Chung was on trial on charges stemming from allegations that his company helped former president Kim Dae-jung's government secretly pay North Korea the equivalent of $140 million Cdn to get Pyongyang to agree to the summit between the Koreas.
In June, Chung was indicted on charges of doctoring company books to hide the money transfers. If convicted, he could have faced up to three years in prison.
So far eight former government and Hyundai officials have been indicted in the case.
Chung was a son of Chung Ju-young, the late founder of Hyundai, and had been leading Hyundai-Asan, a Hyundai subsidiary that runs a series of joint ventures with communist North Korea.
The mammoth Hyundai, which used to be South Korea's largest conglomerate, was divided into three subgroups in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis: one controlled by Hyundai Motor, South Korea's No. 1 carmaker; the second led by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world's largest shipbuilding company; and the third comprising the remainder of the former conglomerate and under the stewardship of Chung Mong-hun.
Chung had hoped that his North Korean ventures, first initiated by his late father, would eventually prosper and help his company recover. Unlike the other two subgroups, Chung's company had struggled under serious financial strains.
The company leads the inter-Korean project of building railroads and roads across the heavily armed Korean border to link the two Koreas by direct transport routes for the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War. It also broke ground earlier this year to build an industrial park in Kaesong, a North Korean town near the border with the South.
But the joint ventures have made only slow progress amid persistent distrust between the two Koreas and tensions over the North's suspected development of nuclear weapons.
An independent counsel appointed by President Roh Moo-hyun to investigate the summit scandal announced in June that Hyundai-Asan sent $700 million to North Korea, but said only $560 million was a company investment. The rest was raised and sent by Hyundai on behalf of the government, the counsel said.
All of the money was sent to Pyongyang through Hyundai-Asan shortly before the June 2000 summit, former president Kim's crowning achievement, which helped him win the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize, the investigator said.
Independent counsel Song Doo-hwan did not characterize the cash transfer as a payoff for the summit, but he said the government "aid" for North Korea was related to the meeting and had been sent secretly through improper channels.
Hyundai says it gave the money to the North to secure business rights there covering tourism, railways and an industrial park.
Song's findings threaten the legacy of former Kim, who was hailed worldwide as a champion of peace for a reconciliation policy that laid the groundwork for the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Tensions eased after the meeting, but have spiked again over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons programs.
Song had agreed not to consider whether the former president himself was culpable. However, three of Kim's former top aides have been arrested and indicted on malfeasance and other charges.
No comment was immediately available from the former president about Chung's death.
No. He climbed out the small window in his private bathroom in his suite of offices at the east end of the 12th floor hallway of the Hyundai Building near Angguk sation, and with the sight of the exquisite Chong Dukkung Palace in front of his eyes, went down to his death.
Since then, the 12th floor has resembled a campground of reporters and TV camermen trying to get a story. When a person of some perceived impartance appears, they are on him like a swarm of wasps.
I find it difficult to beleive that this was over the North Korean bribe issue, since that is old news. There must have been some new development over the weekend, some new disclosure about to break, something... Maybe finances, who knows?
Which one?
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