A former top aide to ex-president Kim Dae-jung was being questioned yesterday in a scandal over the inter-Korean summit three years ago that has already led to the arrest of one former senior Kim administration official.
An independent counsel summoned Park Ji-won, former presidential chief of staff, to ask him about US$500 million sent to North Korea by South Korea's Hyundai business group just before the June 2000 summit between then-president Kim and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Opposition leaders accuse the previous administration of using some of the money to bribe Pyongyang to agree to the summit. The meeting was the crowning achievement of the former president, who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
Kim left office in February after a five-year tenure.
Hyundai says it gave the money to North Korea before the summit to secure business rights in the North covering tourism, railways and an industrial park.
Kim's former economic adviser, Lee Ki-ho, was arrested last month on charges of influencing a state-run bank to extend loans to Hyundai, which spent the loan on North Korea. South Korean law forbids transfers of cash to the North without proper government approval.
Kim has said his government approved Hyundai's money transfers -- despite "legal problems" -- because they facilitated peace on the peninsula. On Sunday, he repeated that the government's decision should not be subject to judicial review.
No charges have been brought against Kim, who has denied any wrongdoing. It remains unclear whether his aides bypassed formal government procedures to approve the money transfers.
The independent counsel has been investigating under a new law backed by President Roh Moo-hyun, who took office in February. Pyongyang has vehemently protested the investigation.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS