The right-hand man of former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung has been arrested on charges of taking kickbacks from the Hyundai Group, prosecutors said yesterday.
Kwon Roh-kap, one of Kim's close confidants, was arrested late Monday after being brought to a prosecutors office in Seoul for questioning, the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office said.
Kwon, 73, is suspected of taking billions of won from Hyundai in 2000, it said.
He became the first figure to be arrested by prosecutors who have investigated allegations that Hyundai lobbied politicians and government officials to keep afloat its troubled business in North Korea.
Prosecutors declined to give details but newspapers said investigators had traced Kwon's bank accounts, based on the testimony of Hyundai executive Chung Mong-hun and other Hyundai officials.
Chung, chairman of Hyundai Asan established by the Hyundai group to conduct projects in North Korea, jumped to his death from his 12th-floor office last week after being probed for making illicit payments to North Korea.
Chung had been one of the key figures standing trial in connection with Hyundai's transfer of US$500 million to North Korea just before an inter-Korean summit in 2000.
The fifth son of Hyundai's late founder Chung Ju-yung told prosecutors that the payment was for Hyundai's monopoly rights to tours and other various projects in North Korea.
But an independent council concluded in June that US$100 million was paid by the government in return for the summit, which helped Kim win the Nobel Peace Prize.
It still remains unclear why Chung committed suicide but aides have said he had been put under pressure by business losses in North Korea.
Hyundai Asan played a lead role in opening inter-Korean exchanges.
But the company's projects in North Korea proved major loss makers, emptying its coffers while exposing the company and Chung to attacks from conservative groups opposed to the so-called appeasement of North Korea.
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS