2 Firms’ Fines Total $850,000 : Campaign finance: Korean Airlines and Hyundai Motor America pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to Rep. Jay C. Kim. A federal probe is continuing.

Korean Airlines and Hyundai Motor America were fined a record total of $850,000 Monday after pleading guilty to making illegal contributions to the 1992 campaign of Rep. Jay C. Kim (R-Diamond Bar).

Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen A. Mansfield said the South Korea-based airline and automobile company have both agreed to cooperate with “an ongoing investigation into campaign finance fraud.”

The U.S. attorney’s office has not revealed the target of that investigation, but it is known that Kim--the first Korean immigrant elected to Congress--became the focus of a federal probe after The Times reported that he had secretly used about $485,000 from his engineering corporation to finance his 1992 campaign.

No criminal charges have been filed against the second-term Republican. Last week, after the indictments of Korean Airlines and Hyundai, Kim’s office issued a statement saying that his campaign had returned any contributions that were “known to be improper.”

Mansfield said Monday that the $600,000 fine imposed against Hyundai and the $250,000 fine handed down against Korean Airlines were the largest fines ever levied under the Federal Election Campaign Act.

Both firms acknowledged that they had violated federal laws that make it illegal for corporations and foreign nationals to contribute to candidates or make contributions in the name of another person.

Mansfield said both cases involved schemes in which the companies’ donations were laundered through their employees--South Korean nationals--thus concealing from the Federal Election Commission the true sources of the money. According to the indictments, Korean Airlines contributed more than $4,000 in this fashion and Hyundai contributed $4,500.

The two companies have issued statements expressing regret for their illegal acts.