By Byun Duk-kun
Staff Reporter

Park Jie-won, a close confidant of former President Kim Dae-jung, was on Friday sentenced to a 12-year jail term for accepting 15 billion won in bribes from Hyundai Group in 2000.

Park, who served as presidential chief of staff under the Kim administration, was also ordered to pay 14.75 billion won ($12.3 million) in fines in the graft case.

The Seoul District Court ruled that Park, one of the inner circle members of Kim, was guilty of all the charges brought up against him regarding bribery and abuse of power.

``The court acknowledges that the defendant, who was in a position of power, misused his authority to ask for 15 billion won for personal gain,’’ the court said in its ruling.

The court also said such a heavy sentence to the former presidential chief of staff was inevitable considering the amount of damage he caused to the public in his abuse of authority.

``There was no consideration to lighten his sentence because he showed no signs of remorse by denying all the charges against him even though he caused such immense loss to the national economy by illegally financing the troubled Hyundai Group which needed immediate restructuring, in return for bribes,’’ the court said in the ruling.

The court, however, recognized Park’s role in the historic inter-Korean summit between Kim and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000 in Pyongyang.

``In case of the illegal money transfer (to North Korea), it had to do with the duties of his office and the defendant was well aware of the landmark summit though he was not fully aware of its illegality. There is also a need to look at the positive outcome of the inter-Korean summit on South-North relations,’’ the court said.

Park was arrested on June 19 for receiving bribes and orchestrating the $500-million illegal money transfer to the North ahead of the 2000 inter-Korean summit. The prosecution had originally asked for a 20-year imprisonment and fines of 15 billion won.


benjamine@koreatimes.co.kr