7 Other Lawmakers Face Imminent Arrest As Corruption Probe Widens


By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
The prosecution on Friday detained Rep. Chyung Dai-chul of the Uri Party without a court warrant, shortly after requesting arrest warrants for him and seven other lawmakers on corruption charges.

The prosecution alleged Chyung took 300 million won in bribes from Daewoo Engineering & Construction in March last year, in addition to 400 million won from now-defunct real estate developer Good Morning City and its subcontractor. The lawmaker was taken away from his Seoul home around 11 a.m. and was brought to the prosecution office in Seoul for a court issuance of his arrest warrant.

The prosecution said it was investigating the whereabouts of Reps. Choi Don-woong and Park Jae-wook of the Grand National Party (GNP), who have allegedly gone underground since Thursday night. They are two of the eight lawmakers facing arrest.

Earlier in the morning, the prosecution requested arrest warrants for Chyung and seven other lawmakers, despite strong backlash from political parties, especially the main opposition GNP against the prosecution’s move.

Rep. Kim Young-iel of the GNP, who played a central role in the party’s illegal fundraising campaign during the 2002 presidential election, faces imprisonment, along with seven other fellow lawmakers, whose arrests were rejected by the GNP-controlled National Assembly last week.

The Assembly decision sparked public criticism that the Assembly was unduly protecting scandal-hit lawmakers.

The prosecution claimed Kim accepted 1.07 billion won from Asiana Airlines officials in the run-up to the election at his office in the GNP headquarters. Asiana Airlines is a key subsidiary of Kumho, one of the major conglomerates that made illegal donations to political parties in 2002. The group changed its official name to Kumho Asiana beginning Jan. 1.

The prosecution decided to get tough with the lawmakers in consideration of the public sentiment against the rampant corruption, Moon Hyo-nam, a senior prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office, said.

``A prosecution panel agreed to bring in the lawmakers for court review after assessing the criminal charges brought against them,’’ Moon said. ``The crimes they committed are very serious.’’

Kang Hyung-joo, a judge of the Seoul District Court, who is in charge of issuing arrest warrants, said he would make efforts to screen each of the cases as quickly as possible to decide whether to allow prosecutors to detain them.

The lawmakers facing arrest are Choi Don-woong, Park Jae-wook, Park Myung-hwan, Park Joo-cheon, Kim Young-iel of the GNP, Park Joo-sun and Lee Hoon-pyung of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), and Chyung of the Uri Party. Chyung, 60, belonged to the MDP when he allegedly took bribes from businesses.

The prosecution action was made possible after the Assembly went into a 20-day recess from midnight, Thursday. By law, the prosecution cannot hold lawmakers without Assembly approval when it is in session.

The prosecution previously said they would take action against no more the four lawmakers previously in question, but decided to take all suspected lawmakers based on the principle of equity, officials said.

Rep. Choi, 69, allegedly contacted and collected illegal political funds from conglomerates during the 2002 presidential election, while Park Joo-sun (56), Park Joo-cheon (63) and Lee Hoon-pyung (61) are suspected of taking kickbacks from Hyundai Group in relation to the group’s ventures in North Korea. Park Joo-sun faces another charge of accepting bribes from the now-defunct Nara Investment Banking Corp.

Park Jae-wook, 66, allegedly embezzled 10.7 billion won in secret funds from schools founded by him in Taegu.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr