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Probe finds Yang spent bribe money on DUP heads

Yang Gyeong-suk, a loyalist of ex-president Roh Moo-hyun who was suspected of receiving bribes from aspiring lawmakers before the April general election, allegedly spent some of the money she received to support the current chairman and the floor leader of the main opposition party to help them win leadership elections.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, the nation’s top prosecution office, yesterday released the preliminary results of the first round of their three-month probe into the money-for-nominations scandal in the Democratic United Party.

Yang, the 51-year-old director of liberal Internet site Radio 21, was suspected of receiving a total of 4.09 billion won ($3.6 million) from three aspiring lawmakers in return for using her connections to the party to help them become proportional candidates for the April 11 legislative election.

Yang and the three lawmakers were all indicted yesterday.

Prosecutors said that Yang spent part of the money she received from the three lawmakers to support Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the party, and Park Jie-won, floor leader, to win the previous leadership elections.

Lee won the chairmanship election in June and Park won the floor leadership election in January. The exact amount of the money she spent on the two different leadership elections hasn’t been confirmed.

In January, Yang allegedly received a phone call from Park. He asked her to help him gain the floor leader position, especially through mobile phone voting. Prosecutors said that she paid a considerable amount of money to send 116,259 text messages to party members in January, asking them to vote for Park.

By Kim Hee-jin [heejin@joongang.co.kr]