Ruling Party Joins Call To Punish Prosecutors

Politicians across the political spectrum called Friday for stern punishment of officials of the National Intelligence Service and the prosecutors office for their possible involvement or dereliction of duty in relation to three major financial scandals of last year and this.

"The prosecution's investigations into the Chung Hyun-joon and Chin Seung-hyun scandals were inadequate," said Lee Nak-yon, spokesman for the governing Millennium Democratic Party. "Those who were involved in corruption or who have instigated problems should be punished as they deserve."

Mr. Lee called on the prosecutor-general and the director-general of the National Intelligence Service to address the possibility of crisis in their ranks to the satisfaction of the public.

The governing party's stance is an about-face from just two days before. On Wednesday, it accused the opposition Grand National Party of attempting to undermine the government's law-enforcement authority by attacking the two crucial government agencies.

Representative Kim Ki-bae of the Grand National Party called Friday for the resignation of Shin Kuhn, the director-general of the National Intelligence Service, and Shin Seung-nam, the prosecutor-general.

The Seoul District Prosecutors Office which began to reinvestigate the case of Chin Seung-hyun, a start-up businessman accused of obtaining illegal loans, manipulating share prices and giving bribes to high officials, moved to prevent Mr. Chin's lobbyist, Kim Jae-hwan, from leaving the country. It is actively searching for him.

Prosecutors will try to confirm Mr. Kim's testimony of last year in which he said he had given 50 million won ($39,000) to Representative Kim Bang-rim of the Millennium Democratic Party and 40 million won to Chung Sung-hong, formerly a working-level official at the National Intelligence Service's economic intelligence team. Mr. Chung, currently with the information management division, resigned Friday.

To find out who else among politicians and government officials may have received money from Mr. Kim, prosecutors began to trace his bank accounts to see where he spent 1.25 billion won that he got from Mr. Chin as lobbying funds.

Last year as they wrapped up the investigation, prosecutors said Mr. Kim had spent 720 million won on Mr. Chin's legal defense and embezzled 420 million won. They took no action on Mr. Kim's testimony that he had given money to the legislator and the intelligence official.

"They don't show up even when we issue a summons," said a prosecutor. He said the prosecution investigating Mr. Chin's case probably could take no action because ever since Korea's authoritarian regimes the National Intelligence Service has generally been stronger than the prosecutors office.

A prosecutor-turned-private attorney said the fact that the director-general of the National Intelligence Service reports directly to the president shows how powerful the agency is. Others in the legal community say the fact that the Seoul District Prosecutors Office postponed investigating Kim Hyung-yoon, former head of economic intelligence, even after detecting signs that he was involved in corrupt dealings last year was an indication that prosecutors wanted to avoid clashing with the intelligence agency.

Toward the end of a presidential term, analysts said, prosecutors sometimes have more clout than intelligence officers. The prosecution investigating the corruption charges against former president Kim Young-sam's second son, Kim Hyun-chul, uncovered evidence indicating that Kim Ki-sup, a former money manager at the National Intelligence Service, had received 150 million won from a cable television operator, and he was arrested.

by Kim Won-bae