Amount in Chun Fund Disclosed

Former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, already in police custody on insurrection charges stemming from a 1979 mutiny, amassed a political slush fund of more than $600 million while in office, authorities said Tuesday.

Although it has been known that Chun is under investigation in connection with the slush fund, this is the first time that prosecutors have disclosed its suspected size. South Korean media had previously estimated it at $390 million to $520 million.

Chun’s successor, former President Roh Tae Woo, publicly confessed in October to having accumulated a $653-million slush fund during his term in office. Prosecutors have said only, however, that Roh’s slush fund totaled about $600 million. Roh was arrested in November and is on trial for bribery.

“It has been confirmed that Chun stashed more money than ex-President Roh Tae Woo while he was in office,” Choi Hwan, chief of the Seoul district prosecutor’s office, told reporters Tuesday, referring to the prosecutors’ figure of about $600 million for Roh’s slush fund. Chun held office from 1980 to 1988.

“It seems that Chun was more adept at collecting slush money,” Choi added. “As Chun spent money more liberally, it seems that Chun kept less leftover slush money than Roh did.”

Prosecutors have said that Roh retained about $300 million of his slush fund after leaving office. The discrepancy between Roh’s original figure of $653 million and the $600 million cited by prosecutors has never been fully explained. But Roh, who was president from 1988 to 1993, has said his original confession was based on an estimate.

The Korea Herald today quoted unnamed prosecution sources as saying that Chun’s total slush fund appeared to be about $650 million and that he retained money or real estate worth about $130 million after stepping down.

Chun staged a hunger strike after his Dec. 3 arrest and was hospitalized for treatment in late December, but he has resumed eating and is expected to be returned to prison after he recovers his health. He has already been indicted on charges stemming from the 1979 mutiny, which catapulted him to the presidency the following year.

Prosecutors have said they expect to indict Chun later this month on corruption charges and on charges stemming from the nationwide implementation of martial law on May 17, 1980, and the brutal suppression of a pro-democracy revolt that broke out in the southwestern city of Kwangju the next day.

The main opposition National Congress for New Politics has charged that huge sums went from Roh’s slush fund into President Kim Young Sam’s winning 1992 presidential campaign.

In a New Year’s address to the nation Tuesday, Kim avoided directly addressing that issue.

Kim vigorously denied, however, having benefited personally from political donations.