Party figure admits illegal donation

Home > National > Politics

print dictionary print

Party figure admits illegal donation

Following the confession Sunday by Representative Kim Keun-tae that the Millennium Democratic Party had failed to report political funds it had received, former Representative Kwon Roh-kap on Monday admitted that he had donated some of the money.

Mr. Kim stirred up political circles when he confessed that the ruling party had concealed from the National Election Commission the receipt of 240 million won ($181,000) during the party convention Aug. 30, 2000.

The convention was held to elect members of the party's supreme council, including Mr. Kim.

Included in that sum, Mr. Kim added, was money from Mr. Kwon.

In acknowledging that he had provided illicit political funding to the party, Mr. Kwon said:

"At the time I believed the Millennium Democratic Party should become a national party, so I supported regional representatives for election. I provided 20 million won each to Mr. Kim and Chung Dong-young, who were close to me at the time."

Mr. Kwon said the money came from a bank account that his wife had been saving in for 13 years while managing two restaurants.

"The money was saved up for my campaign when I planned to run for the party's supreme council," Mr. Kwon said. When he decided not to run, he said, he gave away the money.

Illicit political funding is punishable by a fine of up to 30 million won and up to 3 years in prison. The same penalties apply to those who accept illegal funds.

If the election commission chooses to sue Mr. Kwon, several of the ruling party's prospective presidential candidates would be investigated by the prosecutors office. The commission said, however, that an investigation would be difficult for it since it has no subpoena rights.

The prosecutors office said it would investigate the donations, but not until next month, allowing the Millennium Democrats to proceed with their primary election currently under way.

The opposition Grand National Party demanded a thorough investigation.

"The rumors that Mr. Kwon has been spraying around huge amounts of political funds have turned out to be true," Nam Kyung-pil, party spokesman, asserted. "Mr. Kwon should disclose the origin of the money and how much was raised and who the provider is."

The ruling party also demanded that its presidential hopefuls disclose their campaign expenditures.

by Lee Jung-min

Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)