JoongAng"s Editorial Writer Leaves Prosecutor"s Office with Clean Bill

On the morning of Nov. 12, 1999, Mun Byong-ho, editorial writer for JoongAng Ilbo, appeared at the Prosecutor's Office in Seoul for questioning in connection with the so-called 'press coercion document'.
But he left the Prosecutor's Office in the afternoon after it was confirmed that he has nothing to do with the document.
In advance of this, Mun held a press conference at the Media Hall in JoongAng Ilbo and stated, 'I have absolutely no connection with circumstances surrounding the document.'
Mun stated that he had had approximately ten conversations by phone with reporter Moon Il-hyun, who is the author of the document, from August 1998, when Moon departed for graduate studies in Beijing, up until recently.
He went on to note that there was never any discussion of the document in question and that in fact he did not know that reporter Moon was the author of this document until this was revealed publicly last month.
The document was written by Moon, a reporter on leave from JoongAng Ilbo who was studying at Beijing University, and sent by fax on June 24, 1999 to the office of Lee Jong-chan, vice-president of the ruling National Congress for New Politics (NCNP).
The prosecutor's office stated that in the course of its investigation of Lee, it had obtained evidence that Mun Byong-ho was involved in some fashion with the incident and thus they were calling him in for questioning.
Mun responded, 'I am appearing in front of the prosecutors simply to dispense with these unfounded suspicions.'
He went on to state with relation to the NCNP's attempt to drag him into this incident, 'This is a politically calculated move on the part of Lee to change the focus of attention, even for a moment, away from himself in this investigation.' Mun commented, 'I wonder if this is not another attempt to use me in the plot to destroy JoongAng Ilbo.'
Shim Shang-bok@joongang.co.kr