hankyoreh

Former president Lee Myung-bak answers a reporter’s question while on his way to an end of the year party at a restaurant in the Gangnam district of Seoul on Dec. 18. (by Shin So-young

The Hankyoreh has learned that South Korea’s prosecutors have acquired testimony indicating that former president Lee Myung-bak was aware that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had been illegally diverting money from its special activity fund to the Blue House during his presidency. “A direct criminal investigation of Lee Myung-bak is inevitable now,” a senior prosecutor said.

Hankyoreh reporters learned on Jan. 16 that Lee had a one-on-one meeting in his office at the Blue House with former NIS Strategy Coordination Chief Kim Ju-seong in May 2008, at Kim’s request. Kim reportedly told Lee that continued appropriation of the NIS’s special activity funds could lead to problems down the road.

At that time, a budget officer from the NIS Strategy Coordination Office had already personally delivered 200 million won (US$188,000) to then-Blue House General Affairs Secretary Kim Baek-jun, who was a close confidante of Lee’s. But when the Blue House asked for more money not long after the delivery, Kim Ju-seong contacted Blue House Chief of Staff Ryu Woo-ik to request a personal meeting with the president and conveyed his concerns at the ensuing meeting. But reports show that Kim received 200 million won more money from the NIS in 2010, two years later.

The prosecutors secured a deposition to this effect while they were recently questioning Kim Ju-seong. When this testimony was presented in Kim Baek-jun’s pre-detention suspect hearing (in which the court decides whether to issue a detention warrant) as evidence supporting the “gravity of the matter,” Kim reportedly denied that he had received the money. But the prosecutors have reportedly confirmed that Kim Ju-seong actually visited the Blue House on the date on which he claimed to have personally met with Lee.

As increasing evidence suggests that Lee failed to take action even after being briefed about the diversion of the special activities fund, the prosecutors are planning to question Lee himself before long. If they confirm that Lee ordered the diversion of funds or even tacitly condoned it, the investigation will zero in on Lee as an accomplice to embezzlement.

Lee’s secretary responded with a press release denying the accusations: “The NIS Strategy Coordination Chief is not in a position to report such information to the president during a private meeting. This did not happen, nor could it have happened. This is regressive political scheming and a witch hunt cooked up by the investigators. [The prosecutors] will be held responsible for this.”

In related news, former Blue House Civil Affairs Secretary Kim Jin-mo, who is charged with accepting 50 million won (US$47,000) from the NIS, confirmed that the money had been collected from the NIS to silence those ready to blow the whistle about the government’s surveillance of private citizens. But Kim reportedly seemed unwilling to say who had ordered the diversion of the funds.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]