Free Republic

No more sunshine Published: August 5 2003 5:00 | Last Updated: August 5 2003 5:00 For over a decade, the world's dealings with North Korea have been marked by tactical retreat in the face of blackmail. Today, as in 1994, the blackmail is nuclear: the US and its Asian allies are supposed to support the regime financially and politically in exchange for its promise to abandon a nuclear weapons programme it was never supposed to have had in the first place. The latest victim (and former practitioner) of this kind of unsavoury bargaining with North Korea is Chung Mong-hun, the...

More Sunshine Needed Tuesday, August 5, 2003; Page A14 YESTERDAY Chung Mong Hun, a top executive of the South Korean Hyundai conglomerate, threw himself from the 12th floor of his company's headquarters. He left behind several notes, including one requesting that his ashes be scattered over Diamond Mountain, a loss-making North Korean holiday resort set up by Hyundai. It was a fitting request. For the past several years, Mr. Chung and his father had spent hundreds of millions of dollars in North Korea, some on ludicrous "investments" such as Diamond Mountain, some directly on payments to the North Korean government....

Seoul, Aug 5. North Korea today accused South Korean conservatives of murdering a Hyundai executive found dead while under investigation for illicit payments of millions of dollars to the Stalinist state. Chung Mong-Hun, who was on trial in connection with the illegal cash transfer to North Korea in 2000, jumped to his death yesterday from his high-rise office building in downtown Seoul. Police said he committed suicide, according to media sources.. "Chung's death was not a suicide in a true sense of the word, but a murder by South Korea's independent counsel and main opposition Grand National Party which oppose...

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...

Chung, right, with North Korea's Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 1998. Photo: AFP North Korea has accused South Korean conservatives of murdering a top Hyundai executive found dead while under investigation for illicit payments of millions of dollars to the North. Chung Mong-Hun, who was on trial over the illegal cash transfer to North Korea in 2000, fell to his death on Monday from his high-rise office building in central Seoul. Police said he committed suicide. North Korea said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency: "Chung's death was not a suicide in a true...

An executive of South Korean car group Hyundai who was on trial over a payments scandal has jumped to his death. Chung Mong-hun, 55, leapt 12 storeys from the company's office building in Seoul. He had been on trial for his role in a scandal in which prosecutors said South Korea paid hundreds of millions of dollars to communist North Korea. South Korean media said that Chung had left a four-page will for his wife and for Hyundai bosses. They reported Chung did not say why he was taking his life. Chung was the fourth son of the late Chung...

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...

Hyundai Asan Chairman Commits Suicide by Youm Kang-su (ksyoum@chosun.com) and by Chae Sung-jin (dudmie@chosun.com) Chung Mong-hun, the Hyundai Asan chairman who was implicated in the secret transfer of money to North Korean before the June 2000 inter-Korean summit, killed himself early Monday morning by jumping out of his company office on the 12th floor of Hyundai group's head office building in Gye-dong, downtown Seoul, police and company officials said. Mong-hun had been under investigation over the "cash-for-summit" scandal and an allegation that he raised a W15 billion political slush fund. A janitor found Chung's body in the garden at the...

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug 03, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Chung Mong-hun, top executive of South Korea's Hyundai conglomerate who was embroiled in a scandal over a historic 2000 summit between the two Koreas, commits suicide Monday, a police source says. "Mr. Chung jumped off his office in the 12th floor of the Hyundai headquarters building" in central Seoul, said a police officer who only gave his last name Park. Chung was first found dead on the ground by his female secretary, Park said Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved