S. Korea’s Chun Indicted Over Slush Fund

Former South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan, already under arrest in connection with a 1979 mutiny, was indicted today along with several former associates on additional charges of bribery stemming from a $900-million slush fund he amassed in office.

Lee Jong Chan, head of a special investigative team targeting Chun, told a news conference today that $282 million of that fund has been identified as bribes, Lee said.

“Chun Doo Hwan admits that he still has about [$200 million] left over, but he refuses to testify about details of that money,” Lee said, adding that his office will try to track the funds and seek legal action to confiscate it or impose fines on Chun.

In addition to gathering evidence of corruption, Lee’s investigative team is looking into a 1979 mutiny during which Chun, then a general, took control of the army and is investigating a bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protesters in the southwestern city of Kwangju in May 1980.

Additional indictments on sedition charges are expected later this month against Chun and various former military officers who played roles in the Kwangju crackdown, which left at least 240 dead and possibly, some Kwangju residents say, as many as 1,000.

Investigators have spent more than two weeks in Kwangju for an on-site investigation into the events of May 1980, taking testimony from participants and witnesses to the pro-democracy uprising and its suppression. They announced Thursday that they have identified several suspected mass burial sites for victims of the massacre, and that excavations of those sites may begin as early as this weekend.

Those charged with Chun, Lee announced, include two former close aides who were arrested Wednesday for allegedly accepting bribes on Chun’s behalf: Ahn Hyun Tae, former chief bodyguard for Chun, and Sung Yong Uk, former chief tax administrator.

Indicted without arrest for roles as accomplices, Lee said, were former National Assembly member Lee Won Jo, former Chun economic aide Sakong Il and former intelligence chief Ahn Moo Hyuk, who currently is a member of the National Assembly from the ruling New Korea Party.

The Joong Ang Ilbo newspaper reported today that “Sakong Il is known to have arranged meetings by 30 heads of business conglomerates with Chun for him to accept slush funds.”

Lee listed seven major business conglomerates that gave money to Chun, but said none were indicted because the statute of limitations had expired. The major business groups and the amounts prosecutors have determined they gave Chun are: Hyundai, $29 million; Samsung, $29 million; Dong Ah, $23 million; Hanjin, $21 million; Daewoo, $20 million; Hanil, $20 million; and Sunkyong, $20 million.