Clinton Met Korean Donor, Aides Now Say

Contrary to previous accounts by Democratic Party officials, President Clinton privately met the head of a South Korean company at the fund-raising event for which the firm made its illegal $250,000 campaign contribution, White House and party officials acknowledged Tuesday.

Clinton was introduced to John K.H. Lee, the chairman of Cheong Am America Inc., and several associates outside the ballroom of the Sheraton Carlton Hotel in Washington on April 8. Democratic National Committee fund-raiser John Huang, who arranged both the contribution and the brief encounter, joined Clinton, DNC spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said.

At that time, Carson Mayor Mike Mitoma, who was working with Lee to locate a manufacturing plant in his city, introduced the Cheong Am executive to Clinton.

The president “does remember saying [to Lee] that Mayor Mitoma tells me you’re thinking about locating your company in the Carson city area . . . and we sure hope you’ll do it,” a senior White House official said.

According to an internal DNC document, Huang apparently knew that the company had yet to do any business in the United States--which made its contribution to an American election campaign illegal. The DNC returned the $250,000 in September after The Times reported that the funds came from the firm’s parent company in South Korea rather than from revenue produced by Cheong Am America.

This new account edges Clinton closer to the expanding controversy over foreign contributions to the Democratic Party. It also raises a potentially troubling question: Was the president, either before or during his exchange with Lee, given sufficient information about the status of Cheong Am’s nascent operations in the United States to question the legality of the contribution?

The White House official said Clinton’s comment to Lee did not indicate that the president was aware that the U.S. subsidiary was not yet operating in this country and that the campaign donation therefore came from overseas.

The official said Cheong Am’s intention to locate in Carson does “not tell you anything about whether [Lee’s] got an operating company” in the United States.

It could not be determined Tuesday whether Huang or anyone else at the DNC or the White House briefed the president about Cheong Am’s circumstances prior to the fund-raiser. Huang’s attorney, John C. Keeney Jr., did not return phone calls.

It is also uncertain precisely what Mitoma told Clinton that evening.

Mitoma, whose role in setting up the introduction to Clinton and handling the contribution was greater than he had previously disclosed, could not be reached. He said in a previous interview that he was working with Cheong Am as a private international consultant as well as in his capacity as mayor prior to severing his ties with the firm last spring.

Lee, who disappeared along with nearly all traces of his company in the fall, also could not be reached.

Both Tobe and the White House spokesman said Clinton’s encounter with Lee was short and not substantive.

Prior to this week, Democratic officials had not revealed that Lee met Clinton outside the fund-raiser. In September, DNC communications director David Eichenbaum told The Times that Lee had been routinely introduced to Clinton during the course of the event like any other guest.

“There was a very brief encounter,” Eichenbaum said. “A stand up, shake hands, say a few words and pass through. There was nothing of substance discussed.”

Eichenbaum never mentioned that Lee’s private moments with Clinton were prearranged by Huang. Tobe said that Lee and his four guests did not even attend the dinner itself after meeting the president.

Cheong Am’s $250,000 check, signed by Lee, was made out on April 8, the day of the fund-raiser, according to a copy of the check in DNC files.

Eichenbaum was not available this week. Tobe said that his original account was “a version that he would have gotten from John [Huang] because no one else from the DNC was there.”

Eichenbaum also said Cheong Am had not sought anything in return for its contribution.

But documents relating to Huang’s tenure at the DNC that were made public last week indicate that Lee was seeking a meeting with Clinton. His preference, in fact, was for a session with Clinton during the president’s mid-April trip for talks with Korean President Kim Young Sam.

An April 1 directive from Mitoma to Huang asks for such a meeting at the same time that it requests that five places be reserved for Cheong Am at the fund-raiser in Washington.

It added that Lee “still prefers private meeting before trip to Korea with the president. Is it possible to have Lee meet Clinton privately for 30 minutes in Korea when he visits instead of private meeting in Washington? If possible, please let me know what kind of fund-raising would be appropriate. Please let me know details of April 8 meeting. Also what is the dress and how should the donation check be made payable.”

Tobe said she did not know whether Huang promised, or implied, that Lee would get private time with Clinton in exchange for the donation.

Following the session with Clinton, Mitoma wrote directly to the president that evening to inform him that Lee and the chairman of the Hyundai Group would like “to greet you on your visit with President Y.S. Kim.” Mitoma, who was traveling to Korea himself, told Clinton that he hoped to have “an opportunity to introduce you” to the head of “the largest industrial group in Korea.”

This meeting never took place.

In a handwritten response, DNC Chairman Donald Fowler told Huang: “Please see me about this ASAP. Pres. Clinton cannot see these folks in Korea. This is important.”

Fowler said the urgent tone of his message had nothing to do with the nature of Mitoma’s invitation but, rather, “he did not want John to get out ahead of himself on the request,” Tobe said. “He wanted to stop it in its tracks since he knew the president wasn’t going to be doing any other meetings” during his trip to Korea.

Hyundai has had its own woes with its financial support for a president. It was implicated in South Korea’s national corruption scandal involving the bribery of former presidents by major businesses. The company admitted giving millions of dollars to ex-South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan but was not indicted because the statute of limitations had expired.

Huang’s file also contains a handwritten memo from him to DNC finance director Richard Sullivan describing the status of Cheong Am’s plans to build a plant to manufacture giant video display screens in Southern California. Huang noted that the company was seeking a U.S. partner to provide programming.

“If this is done,” the memo continued, “the manufacturing facility is going to be in the city of Carson, Calif. The initial investment will be around $150 million.”

This memo appears to contradict Huang’s response to written questions in October. At that time, he said he was “under the impression, from discussions with representatives of the company and other persons familiar with the company, that the company had already commenced actual operations in the U.S.”

Times staff writer David Rosenzweig in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

* REACTION IN ASIA

Asians respond to donations flap with “So what?” A15