Prosecutors to summon presidential ex-aide over bribery allegation

Prosecutors said Sunday they have asked a former senior secretary to President Lee Myung-bak to face questioning this week over his alleged involvement in a vote-buying scandal during the ruling party's 2008 leadership election.

Kim Hyo-jae was asked to appear at the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office by 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a prosecution spokesman said.

Kim allegedly played a key role in the scandal where envelopes of money were distributed to Grand National Party lawmakers before their colleague Park Hee-tae was elected as party leader in 2008.

Park left the party, which recently changed its name to the Saenuri Party, in 2010 to take up the position of National Assembly Speaker. He resigned from the role last week claiming responsibility for the vote-buying scandal.

Kim also resigned last week as Lee's senior political affairs secretary after reports that prosecutors had secured testimony that his former aide delivered an envelope stuffed with 3 million won ($2,667) to Rep. Koh Seung-duk of the Saenuri Party before the leadership vote. Koh disclosed the scandal last month.

The 58-year-old Kim was the policy monitoring chief for Park's election camp before moving to the presidential office last year.

The former presidential secretary is also suspected of ordering Ahn Byun-yong, who served as a funding manager at Park's election camp in Seoul in 2008, to hand over a total of 20 million won to five ruling party camp managers so they could distribute the money to other party members.

Since the scandal first broke in early January, Kim has denied any involvement.

Prosecutors said they will focus on whether Kim ordered his former aides to distribute the money and forced them to make false statements on the alleged wrongdoings.

Based on the results from questioning Kim, the prosecutors said they will make a decision on whether or when to summon former parliamentary speaker Park Hee-tae.(Yonhap)