Death leap in humiliation and stench of scandal (S.Korea paid the NK $500 mil for “Peace” summit)

Irish Independent ^ | 8/5/03 | Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo

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Chung Mong Hun gave no sign that he was intending to kill himself.

The night before his death he dined with his family and afterwards the chairman of the Hyundai Asan conglomerate went out with an old school friend.

They got through two bottles of wine before saying goodnight and just before midnight on Sunday Mr Chung (55) entered the Seoul headquarters of Hyundai Asan. It was the last time that anyone saw him alive.

Yesterday a caretaker poked what he thought was a drunken tramp in a flowerbed. It was the body of the chairman, 12 floors below his open office window. On his desk were scrawled notes. "I was a foolish man and I have finally done a foolish thing. Please forgive my foolish deed."

South Korean websites were thrumming with speculation about what killed Mr Chung, although, for now, there seems no reason to doubt that his death was suicide. Even so, the consequences will be far-reaching.

Mr Chung was at the centre of the country's hottest scandal, concerning the 2000 summit between the then South Korean President, Kim Dae Jung, and the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il. The meeting was regarded as a success and won Kim Dae Jung the Nobel Peace Prize. This year, however, the achievement has been tarnished by the allegation that North Korea was paid $500m for the summit, money funnelled through Mr Chung's company.

He was charged with violating foreign currency laws; the day before his death he was interrogated for 12 hours. Conviction could have brought a three-year jail sentence. But perhaps any penalty was less important than the humiliation.

Hyundai was founded as a repair shop by Mr Chung's father, a docker who became the most powerful businessman in South Korea, running the world's largest shipbuilder and diversifying into cars, electronics and financial services. Like the other South Korean chaebol (conglomerates), the Hyundai companies were split up after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Chung Mong Hun inherited Hyundai Asan and his father's most cherished dream: the reunification with the communist North.

Few countries present less appetising investment opportunities than North Korea, but after the 2000 summit Hyundai Asan led the way.

It ran loss-making tours to the North's Diamond Mountains, and invested in an industrial park for the city of Kaesong.

The company always claimed that $400 m of the money it sent to North Korea before the summit was for legitimate business activities, but that still left $100m unexplained.

Mr Chung was said to have been deeply upset by the way that an idealistic enterprise has been tarnished by scandal, and by his own failure to realise his father's ambitions.

His death may now complicate the prosecution of other powerful men implicated in the scandal. It may also result in further restructuring of the Hyundai companies.

Mr Chung's last wish, however, was that business in the North should go on. "Strongly pursue the projects in the North," he wrote to the company president. To his wife he wrote: "Scatter my ashes on the Diamond Mountains." (© The Times, London)

[danneskjold]

But perhaps any penalty was less important than the humiliation.

Quite a contrast to most politicians in this country, where humiliation seems to have become a foreign concept...

[Onelifetogive]

Few countries present less appetising investment opportunities than North Korea, but after the 2000 summit Hyundai Asan led the way.

I don't think that there is a better example of the difference in the results between capitalism and communism than the Koreas. Similar in all respects...religion, society, size, history, etc. One is a global leader in capitalism, the other is in total poverty.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #1

Mr. Chung was in more trouble than was expected. During the 12 hour interrogation, he confessed that he gave 10 billion won(about $9million) to ruling party politicans at the time. What first started as the investigation for cash-for-summit scandal, led to a side scandal of illegal political funds, which is equally serious.

Kim Dae-jung government was rotten through and through.