Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Governor Hong walking tight rope
By Kim Rahn
Hong Joon-pyo
By Kim Rahn
South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Joon-pyo is under increasing scrutiny because evidence and various testimonies have emerged supporting allegations that he accepted bribes from the late Keangnam Enterprises Chairman Sung Woan-jong.
Both Sung and one of his aides have claimed bribes were accepted by Hong, which he has outright denied.
If the allegations are proven true and he is found guilty of taking bribes, Hong will lose the governorship.
The South Gyeongsang governor was one of eight figures named on a memo Sung left before killing himself last Thursday while being investigated over corruption allegations surrounding the failed “energy diplomacy” of the Lee Myung-bak administration.
In the memo and in an interview with a local daily hours before his suicide, Sung claimed that he offered 100 million won to Hong in 2011 when he was campaigning to become the leader of the Grand National Party, the predecessor of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Sung allegedly gave the money through an outside director of Keangnam, Yun Seung-mo, who was helping Hong’s campaign at that time. Yun admitted receiving the money in interviews with several local newspapers, and the prosecution also confirmed the transaction from Keangnam to Yun.
Hong strongly denies taking the money, hinting that Yun took it himself.
Prosecutors plan to summon Yun for questioning. After him, they may question Hong, who said he would answer the prosecution’s summons.
Including Yun, the prosecution already imposed an overseas travel ban on several key aides to Sung, who are suspected of having been aware of the alleged bribery. It was also alleged that Sung kept a secret diary detailing to whom and when he gave kickbacks. Prosecutors suspect these aides may know whether such a diary exists and where it is.
One of the aides, a Keangnam vice president surnamed Han, submitted to prosecutors a USB memory stick on which he recorded details about the bribery. Prosecutors are examining it to confirm whether the records are true.
The prosecution is also looking into 25 billion won that Sung allegedly embezzled. Of the money, some 3 billion was spent on Keangnam affiliates owned by his family. It is not known for what he used 3.2 billion won withdrawn in cash in the name of “expenses” at construction sites and 18.2 billion won he removed from several affiliates.