S. Koreans to Expand Slush Fund Probe to Business Leaders

Prosecutors were poised Thursday to launch investigations of South Korean business people who contributed to a $653-million presidential slush fund, as civic groups and one opposition party demanded the arrest of former President Roh Tae Woo.

Ahn Kang Min, chief of the central investigation department of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, said some of the more than 100 business people suspected of giving money to Roh while he was in office would be summoned.

Among them, other prosecutors said, were about a dozen heads of giant conglomerates who reportedly each gave more than $13 million to Roh, or whose businesses were awarded big contracts during Roh’s 1988-1993 administration.

Ahn, describing a 16-hour interrogation of Roh on Wednesday and Thursday as unsatisfactory, declared that prosecutors would summon Roh again after interrogating the business people. He also said prosecutors had confirmed the location of all but $49 million of the $242 million Roh admits to having left from his slush fund.

Meanwhile, a summons was issued for Lee Hyun Woo, Roh’s former chief bodyguard. Lee reportedly claims he “only did errands” for Roh, but he is suspected of arranging secret meetings for Roh with business leaders and collecting large envelopes stuffed with cash from them.

The opposition Democratic Party, along with civic groups such as the People’s Alliance for Economic Justice and the National Alliance of Democratic People, called for Roh’s immediate arrest.

Park Jie Won, spokesman for the largest opposition party--the People’s Congress for New Politics--blasted the prosecutor’s office for sending Roh home after his interrogation. He charged that prosecutors were collaborating in a government-scripted “scenario” to circumvent disclosure of funds that Roh provided Kim Young Sam during Kim’s successful campaign for president in 1992.

Kim Dae Jung, the leader of the People’s Congress and the nation’s leading advocate of democracy under past authoritarian leaders, admitted receiving $2.6 million from Roh during his own 1992 campaign for president, and has demanded that President Kim reveal details about his campaign funds.