By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The Grand National Party (GNP) Monday urged the prosecution to investigate Rep. Kim Dong-cheol and the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) on suspicions of the leaking of classified information.
``It is highly possible that someone inside the BAI helped Rep. Kim obtain the internal document because the classified material is unavailable to lawmakers under normal circumstances. There is no other way for the lawmaker to get the paper,'' said Rep. Ahn Sang-soo of the main opposition party who is leading the GNP's legal action.
The move came after the lawmaker claimed that GNP presidential hopeful Lee Myung-bak owned properties in the names of his relatives by disclosing internal documents from the BAI in July and August.
The transcripts were from the BAI's special inspection in 1998 of land in Dogok-dong, southern Seoul.
Previously, relatives of Lee, 66, a former Seoul mayor, owned the real estate.
Steel giant POSCO purchased the land in 1995 from Lee's brother and brother-in-law, who were then co-owners of the property, to conduct a large development project in the area.
In the transcripts, Kim Mahn-je, a former president of the steel giant, said he was aware that the legitimate owner of the property was the former Seoul mayor.
Rep. Kim presented another transcript Monday to reporters as evidence supporting Lee's ownership of the property in the names of his relatives.
According to the transcript, top management of the steel giant ordered its staffs to review the feasibility of a large-scale development project on the Dogok-dong property and assess if the plan would be profitable.
POSCO staffs were skeptical of the project because their benefit/cost analysis said it would not be profitable, the document said.
Some of the task force members said that they knew ``somebody is the owner of the property'' and therefore ``it would be inappropriate for the public firm to purchase and conduct a development project on the land because it would ultimately cause property speculation in the area,'' it said.
Management of the steel giant pressed them to go ahead with the project so they had no choice, according to the paper.
Rep. Kim claimed that the document provides pieces of evidence supporting the claim that Lee owned the property in the names of his relatives.
Lee has denied the legislator's claim.