A top Hyundai Group executive, enmeshed in a payments scandal over a landmark summit between North and South Korea, leapt to his death from a high-rise office building yesterday, police said.
Chung Mong-hun, 54, jumped from the 12th floor of the Hyundai building in central Seoul some time after midnight and died around 2am yesterday, police said.
The fifth son of the late Chung Ju-yung, who founded what was once South Korea's largest business conglomerate, Chung was chairman of the unlisted Hyundai Asan Co that spearheads South Korean business projects in North Korea.
He had been facing trial on charges of violating foreign currency regulations in connection with the secret transfer of US$500 million to the North before the historic June 2000 summit.
President Roh Moo-hyun, who five months ago took over a country faced with a slowing economy and an escalating crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, praised Chung's work in promoting ties with North Korea.
"Regardless of his death, I will try my best to advance current North-South Korea business projects, which must go forward without interruption," presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young quoted Roh as saying in a statement.
State and private media reported Chung had left a will in three envelopes, but said he gave no reason for his apparent suicide.
Chung's firm issued a statement saying: "He felt sorry to the Korean people because of the allegations related to the payment of funds from the company to North Korea."
Media reports said Chung, a frequent visitor to North Korea, had requested his ashes be scattered at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort in the North where Hyundai operated ferry tours offering South Koreans a rare chance to visit the communist state.
Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his "Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation with the North, but the business deals and other exchanges with the North envisioned at the Pyongyang summit have been floundering over diplomatic disputes with Seoul's ally, Washington.
Hyundai Asan did break ground in June on a long-delayed US$180 million industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong.
The "cash-for-summit" scandal, which broke in February, has ensnared several top aides to former president Kim Dae-jung.
Government investigators said US$500 million in secret payments were funneled to North Korea from Hyundai Asan with the help of Kim's aides.
At the time, the opposition controlled parliament and a reconciliation with North Korea -- which remains technically at war with the South -- was controversial.
Hyundai and government officials said US$400 million was used to secure monopoly rights for business and tourism ventures in North Korea. But US$100 million was sent just days before Kim met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June.
The news of Chung's death sent share prices of Hyundai companies falling on the local stock market, though analysts had mixed opinions on what impact it ultimately would have.
The family-owned Hyundai Group grew from a small vehicle repair shop after World War II to become Korea's mightiest conglomerate, with businesses ranging from cars, shipbuilding and appliances to electronics and financial services.
The group was split up after the financial crisis, largely blamed on the mountains of debt Korean conglomerates piled up in their relentless expansion drives.
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