Funds Probe Could Resume

State prosecutors are debating whether to resume investigation of Rep. Shim Kyu-sup of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party on charges of embezzling 1.2 billion won ($940,000) when he headed Pyongtaek College of Engineering in 1999.

On Monday, reporters learned that prosecutors released Mr. Shim and dropped their investigation after just a brief interrogation in November 1999.

Not surprisingly, the opposition Grand National Party called for a new investigation. Chang Kwang-keun, the party's deputy spokesman, said the upper echelon of the ruling party must have had a hand in stopping the investigation, as the end of the probe coincided with Mr. Shim's election to the National Assembly.

Prosecutor General Park Soon-yong said Tuesday that he will order the investigation resumed if suspicions persist after checking the facts.

Chung Byung-wook, head of the Pyongtaek District Prosecutors Office, also said he is reviewing the documents from 1999.

Prosecutors reportedly traced cash from nine bank accounts held by the college's foundation between April and December of 1999 after students and instructors at the college accused the foundation of corruption.

One of the bank accounts is the one Mr. Shim said he used to pay back a 1.2-billion-won bank loan using school tuition funds. While he later said he borrowed the 1.2 billion won for the construction of school buildings, prosecutors never looked into his claim that it was not a personal loan. They said the tracing of the cash flow had nothing to do with Mr. Shim personally, so the matter was not pursued.

Mr. Shim also reportedly received 2.6 billion won toward the end of 1999 in return for agreeing to sell a plot of land owned by the college to an unidentified man. Although the man reportedly sued Mr. Shim last August after finding out that he did not own the land, prosecutors again did not investigate Mr. Shim.

Prosecutors explained that the center of the investigation in 1999 was alleged corruption in the college's administrative foundation, not Mr. Shim.

by Chang Chung-hoon