Bonds Remain Orphans

Dho Young-shim, a former legislator, acknowledged Tuesday that promissory notes, subway bonds and bank statements amounting to 550 million won ($440,000), found Monday in the office suite of Rep. Kim Hong-shin, had belonged to her in 1992 when her term as a member of the National Assembly was over.

But she denied knowledge of government and public bonds worth between 300 and 400 million won, as well as three bank statements showing total balances of 15 million won that Mr. Kim said he also found.

Ms. Dho occupied the suite between 1988 and 1992. On Monday she had denied that any of the monetary instruments belonged to her, but Tuesday, she said she was sorry that she had flatly denied everything. She said she accepted the responsibility of having lost the items.

Ms. Dho added that the promissory notes have no value now, since the companies that issued them have been placed under court receivership. The subway bonds, with a face value of 1.3 million won, are now worth only 270,000 won, she said.

On Monday, Mr. Kim asserted that government and public bonds are often used as political slush funds since they are hard to track down. He added that he could not believe that such a large amount of valuable financial paper had been abandoned for 10 years.

Some politicians pointed fingers at Ms. Dho's husband, Kwon Jung-dal, as the true owner of the money. The two married in 1994, after the end of Ms. Dho's legislative term. Mr. Kwon had been an influential figure during Gen. Chun Doo-hwan's military dictatorship between 1980 and 1988.

But Mr. Kwon, who now heads the conservative Korea Freedom League, flatly denied the allegation.

Mr. Kim meanwhile stood by his assertions. Asked whether he saw government and public bonds when he first discovered the bundle, Mr. Kim said that while he did not sort out different types of monetary items one by one, he definitely saw bonds. He added that he discovered the bundle last month but sealed it immediately after spotting a passport within it.

An aide to Mr. Kim said that while his descriptions may not have been fully accurate since he is not a financial expert, Ms. Dho's explanation that the face value of subway bonds amounted to only 1.3 million won appeared to be an underestimate.

by Ko Jung-ae