U.S. Bid 'Pressure' Draws Attacks

Most ruling and opposition lawmakers expressed outrage at the National Assembly on Tuesday at rumors of U.S. pressure to win the bidding for Korea's next-generation fighter program.

"Concerns about a second 'Linda Kim incident' are growing," Rep. Park Sung-kook of the opposition Grand National Party said at the National Defense Committee meeting.

Linda Kim is a former lobbyist for E-Systems of the United States, who was charged in 2000 by Korean authorities with bribing senior Korean military officials to help the firm win $210 million worth of military procurement.

"How much longer are we going to act as a credulous customer in the international defense market?" Rep. Chyung Dai-chul of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party asked.

While demanding transparency in 10 trillion won ($8.1 billion) of military procurement projects to be put out for bids by defense firms through the first half of 2002, legislators took special issue with what they called pressure tactics by the United States during South Korean Foreign Minister Lee Joung-binn's Washington visit. Korean dailies have reported that Secretary of State Colin Powell made a formal request to Korea to buy Boeing's F-15K fighters.

Rep. Yu Sam-nam of the ruling party asked whether the reports of Mr. Powell's pitch for F-15K were true, asserting that "political rhetoric can not pervade military procurement activities."

Other lawmakers were more blunt.

Rep. Kang Chang-sun questioned a "special" visit to Korean military headquarters in January by Jerry Daniels of Boeing. A party colleague, Rep. Chung Jey-moon, said, "There are also rumors of rebates in circulation." A ruling party lawmaker, Chang Young-dal, said that he has also heard rumors of pressure exercised by the Bush administration.

International bidding for a 4.3 trillion won contract in the "Korea Fighters Program" is under way. The government is expected to announce the winner in September. Competitors include Boeing F-15K, France's Rafale's Eurofighter, Russia's Su-35 and a consortium of four European nations: Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Cho Seong-tae, defense minister, answered that since 1999, the government has been making public the entire process of selecting the type of military equipment and defense companies.

"We will work to cut off influence by foreign governments and illegal lobbying by competitor companies," Mr. Cho said.

by Kim Min-seok