S. Korea Indicts Ex-Leader Roh in Bribe Scandal

South Korean prosecutors today indicted former President Roh Tae Woo on bribery charges in connection with a $653-million slush fund he has admitted to amassing while in office.

Seven business tycoons were also indicted today on charges of bribing Roh. They included Daewoo Group Chairman Kim Woo Choong and Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun Hee. Eight other prominent business leaders who were not indicted were named as contributors of bribes.

Chief investigator Ahn Kang Min told a news conference that Roh insists the money he accumulated was a “governing fund” used for his political duties as president.

“But there is no such term as a ‘governing fund,’ and there is no legal foundation for it,” Ahn said. “On the contrary, most of the money he received was in return for favors and influence, or from asking for favors.”

The size of the slush fund gathered by Roh and the large portion of it he retained after leaving office “clearly indicates that this was bribe money, and therefore illegal,” Ahn said.

Meanwhile, authorities rapidly pressed ahead with their investigation of a 1979 military mutiny led by former President Chun Doo Hwan, who was arrested Sunday on insurrection charges.

Two former military officers who played key roles backing Chun in the mutiny were interrogated Monday about what they did and whether Chun had directed their actions. The Dec. 12, 1979, incident led to Chun’s assumption of the presidency the following year--after a coup and the bloody suppression of an uprising of enraged pro-democracy protesters in the city of Kwangju, which left at least 200 dead. Dissidents have long charged that the death toll in Kwangju ran into the thousands.

Roh, a former general jailed since Nov. 16 for the alleged bribery, may eventually face additional charges in connection with the mutiny and Kwangju massacre. He spent his 63rd birthday in prison Monday, breakfasting on bean-paste soup, cabbage and rice and recalling his days in power, according to prison officials quoted in the South Korean press.

The full implications of the slush-fund scandal--which exploded onto South Korea’s political scene with a tearful, publicly televised late-October confession by Roh--are still unfolding. The severity or leniency of treatment meted out to leaders of the huge South Korean conglomerates, or chaebols , could have a major impact on the country’s economy.

Most analysts here predict that the scandal will have a short-term chilling effect on South Korea’s growth rate, but say that if it helps break down collusive business-government ties, that could provide a firmer basis for growth.

The scandal also may continue to have political consequences. Long time opposition leader Kim Dae Jung, head of the main opposition party, the National Congress for New Politics, charged at a massive outdoor rally Sunday that current President Kim Young Sam received $390 million from Roh’s slush fund for his 1992 election campaign.

President Kim merged his party with another opposition group and then-President Roh’s ruling party in 1990 to form a new party with a strong parliamentary majority. He won election in 1992 with Roh’s support, and took office in early 1993.

President Kim vehemently denies having directly accepted any slush-fund money from Roh, but has not ruled out the possibility that his party used some of Roh’s funds for his election.

When Roh confessed to having accumulated the slush fund, Kim Dae Jung, who also ran for president in 1992, swiftly admitted that he received a no-strings-attached gift of $2.6 million from Roh in connection with that campaign. A key opposition demand now is that President Kim also confess any links to the fund.

The uncertainty about where the slush-fund scandal may lead and the possibility that divisions over the treatment of Chun and Roh may split Kim’s ruling Democratic Liberal Party open the possibility of a major realignment in South Korean politics during the coming months.

During interrogations in the past few days, Chun, 64, and Roh have denied that their actions constituted an illegal mutiny or insurrection. Roh played a major role in the military power grab by moving his troops into Seoul from the front line facing North Korea.

Roh told prosecutors that Chun’s takeover of military power was “accidental,” South Korean television reported. He said it resulted from action taken to arrest army Chief of Staff Chung Sung Hwa for involvement in the Oct. 26, 1979, assassination of President Park Chung Hee by the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.

When asked whether Chun ordered him to mobilize his troops, television news said, Roh replied: “No. It was because there was a sign that the army headquarters was mobilizing troops first.”

The allegation that Chung played a role in Park’s assassination has long been described by South Korean dissidents and loyalist army officers as a false pretext for the mutiny. They charge that the real trigger was that Chun, an ambitious general at the time, had learned that he was due to be demoted to a remote posting.

Prosecutors sought to clarify some of these issues in the interrogations Monday of former Defense Minister Roh Jae Hyon and a former chief of military police, Cho Hong.

Questioning of the former defense minister, who held that post during the mutiny, centered on whether he and then-President Choi Kyu Hah were pressured by Chun to retroactively approve Chung’s arrest.

Prosecutors have drawn up a list of more than 30 military officials who will be questioned as part of the investigation, South Korean media reported.

* ECONOMIC FALLOUT: Indictments may hurt Korean economy now, help later. D1