Kim Seung-youn’s Arrest Imminent
By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
Police concluded Friday that Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn mobilized gangsters to kidnap and assault six people involved in a brawl with his son in March.
The statement by the police chief indicated that the arrest of the tycoon is imminent. The police conclusion is a blow to the owner of the nation's ninth largest chaebol, as he previously denied the allegations.
It is speculated that the 55-year-old tycoon will resign from the group as CEO, and other public posts.
``Based on what suspects said and the evidence we have collected, I am confident that Kim was involved in the violence,'' Lee Taek-soon, commissioner general of the National Police Agency (NPA), told a National Assembly committee. ``Through cooperation with the prosecution, we will request an arrest warrant for Kim soon.''
During the committee session, lawmakers asked whether there was pressure from a high-ranking official to cover up the case.
The suspicion comes as the police were aware of the violence and even confirmed that the victims were on the run after the assault, for fear of retaliation.
But the Seoul Namdaemun Police Station said they simply believed it was rumor when it was first reported.
Lee pledged to thoroughly investigate whether Choi Ki-mun, a former NPA commissioner general, who now serves as an adviser to Hanwha, abused his connections to cover up the case.
The incident began with a brawl on March 8 between Kim's 22-year-old son, Dong-won _ a Yale student studying at the Seoul National University on an exchange program _ and six people at a karaoke bar in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul. During the clash, the son suffered a cut to his forehead.
The following day, his father allegedly took his bodyguards to kidnap five of the people who worked at a bar in Bukchang-dong, central Seoul, and drove them to a warehouse on Mt. Cheonggye in southern Seoul, where he attacked them with a steel pipe. Kim later headed to the bar to seek revenge on the attacker on his son.
The police chief said the investigation is in its final stages, indicating that police have secured concrete evidence to detain Kim.
The police said mobile phone record traces of Kim's 40 bodyguards shows many of them went to Mt. Cheonggye, the Cheongdam-dong bar and the Bukchang-dong bar, places they claimed they had never been.
The police are tracing the whereabouts of the president of a construction company, which works closely with Hanwha, as his cellphone records show he visited the three spots with his employees at the time of the incident.