70 to 80 officials said to get sons exempted

The former military hospital officer, Kim Dae-eop, said Tuesday that a joint investigation between 1998 and 1999 created a list of high-profile figures who allegedly helped their sons to dodge the military draft.

Mr. Kim, who recently raised the issue of illegal military exemptions by accusing the son of the Grand National Party's presidential candidate of draft dodging, said 70 to 80 former and incumbent legislators and high-ranking officials were on the list.

He said the list included 12 legislators from the Grand National Party, 2 United Liberal Democrats and a Millennium Democratic Party lawmaker.

Mr. Kim said he would disclose the names of the 12 Grand National Party members next month, along with family members connected to the ownership of the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

The Grand National Party accused Mr. Kim of fabricating a tape recording said to contain testimony by Kim Do-sul, a former military officer at the Armed Forces Capital Hospital, implicating the son of presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang in draft dodging.

Mr. Kim earlier claimed that Kim Do-sul in 1998 and 1999 had confessed to receiving bribes from Mr. Lee's wife in return for exempting their son. The Grand National Party on Tuesday insisted that Kim Do-sul had been coerced by threats into making a false statement.

The Millennium Democratic Party asked the Defense Ministry to turn over documents related to the joint investigation.

The Munhwa Ilbo, a local daily, released a list of 88 figures whose sons it said had dodged the draft between 1985 and 1996, including two sons of Lee Hoi-chang.

The military prosecution, however, charged that the list presented by the newspaper was a false document. It said that a list of 55 people exists, but the two sons of Mr. Lee are not on it.

by Jo Kang-su, Kim Min-seok