Prosecutors grill U.S. firm's rep, Roh aide

Prosecutors grill U.S. firm's rep, Roh aide

SEOUL (Reuter): South Korean state prosecutors probing
business kickbacks to ex-president Roh Tae-woo questioned the
Seoul head of U.S. firm Lockheed Martin yesterday over a huge
warplane purchase.

A prosecution official said Kim Yong-ho, vice president for
the Seoul office of Lockheed Martin, was being questioned late
yesterday about allegations that Roh accepted kickbacks from
General Dynamics during his term in office from 1988-93.

The official, speaking by telephone, said a Seoul consultant
for General Dynamics was also being quizzed over the decision to
buy 120 F-16s from General Dynamics in 1991, reversing an earlier
plan to buy F-18s from McDonnell Douglas of the U.S.

Separately, the prosecution official said Kim Chong-whi, Roh's
secretary for security and foreign affairs when the decision was
made, was being grilled as "a suspect" in connection with the
aircraft contract.

General Dynamics was mostly acquired by Lockheed Corp, which
merged with Martin Marietta earlier this year to form Lockheed
Martin. Kim Yong-ho, who headed General Dynamics in Seoul at the
time, has denied involvement in unethical or illegal arms deals.

Prosecutors have said Kim Chong-whi, who was brought straight
from the airport after arriving from the United States, was a key
figure in the F-16 deal.

Kim Chong-whi left for the United States two months after Roh
stepped down in February 1993. His departure coincided with the
start of an official investigation into a massive $18,2 billion
military build-up codenamed "Yulgok", of which the jet fighter
purchase was a key component.

Roh was indicted last Tuesday on charges of accepting US$369
million from 35 business conglomerates during his tenure. He has
been in detention since his arrest on Nov. 16 and faces trial on
Dec. 18.

Prosecutors have already quizzed several former top military
officers who served under Roh, including two ex-defense
ministers, Lee Jong-koo and Lee Sang-hoon, and former airforce
chief Han Chu-sok, in connection with the warplane purchase.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for arrested former president Chun Doo
Hwan admitted yesterday the ex-general accepted money from
business groups during his iron-fisted rule from 1980-88 but he
said this was not for Chun's personal enrichment.

"Former president Chun received money from corporates...but he
did not personally take them to build up his fortune," the
domestic Yonhap news agency quoted lawyer Lee Yang-woo as saying.

Prosecutors have said they would formally indict Chun around
Dec. 22 on separate charges of bribery during his term in office
and military rebellion stemming from a 1979 coup that led to a
massacre of civilians at Kwangju the following May.

Local media reports said Chun is suspected of having raised
hundreds of millions of dollars while in office.

But they said none of the tycoons would face criminal
punishment for bribing Chun as the statute of limitations period
had already expired.

Chun was on the eighth day of a hunger strike yesterday.