Photos forcing Blue House to clarify Yoon relationship

The Blue House scrambled Wednesday to explain photos of President Kim Dae-jung and Yoon Tae-shik together.

Mr. Yoon, who is charged with murdering his wife, Susie Kim, in 1987, is suspected of embezzling money from the company he founded and manipulating stock prices with the help of influential officials.

Before the photos were revealed, the governing Millennium Democratic Party accused the opposition Grand National Party of helping Mr. Yoon distort stock prices. Several former and incumbent legislators from the opposition party reportedly invested in Mr. Yoon's company, Pass 21, which specializes in fingerprint authentication technology.

On Tuesday several pictures on the company Web site (www.pass21.co.kr) showed Mr. Yoon personally demonstrating the fingerprint authentication technology to the president and attended a Blue House dinner in 2000.

"The fact that the National Intelligence Agency knew Mr. Yoon was a murderer and still let him meet the president clearly shows that there is a flaw in the system of assisting the president on national matters," said Kwon Chul-hyun, spokesman for the Grand National Party. Mr. Kwon questioned how Mr. Yoon, who does not have a high-tech background, obtained the advanced authentication technology.

Chang Kwang-keun, vice spokesman for the Grand National Party, said: "The ruling party accused several members of our party of protecting Mr. Yoon because they attended a company presentation. If their logic is applied to these pictures, it would mean that the president is the biggest supporter of Mr. Yoon."

Oh Hong-keun, spokesman for the Blue House, said Mr.Yoon had visited the Blue House. "Mr. Yoon met the president because he was recommended by a related government agency. If the agency had known he was a murderer they would not have recommended him."

The National Intelligence Agency denied knowing of the meeting. The agency said a complete background check is not done on every person visiting the Blue House.

by Lee Sang-il