By Yoo Dong-ho
Staff Reporter

10 top executives of major conglomerates have been told to remain in Korea and will be called in for questioning according prosecutors on Thursday, in connection with allegations that they gave hundreds of millions of won in illegal campaign funds to the majority Grand National Party (GNP) last year.

Kang Yu-sik, president of LG Corp., the holding firm of LG Group, the nation’s second-largest chaebol (family-owned conglomerate), Shin Dong-in, president of Lotte Hotel, and Chung Soon-won, president of Hyundai Motor, were hit with the travel bans in connection with illegal fundraising around last December’s presidential election.

Other key executives from five conglomerates _ LG, Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK and Lotte _ were grilled late last month over illicit fundraising, the prosecution said.

Samsung Group president Lee Hak-soo was questioned over 300 million won that was funneled to the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) ahead of last year’s presidential election.

The prosecution plans to start summoning the executives this week for questioning over illicit funds donated to the camps of President Roh Moo-hyun and his rival candidate from the GNP, Lee Hoi-chang.

The move comes after state prosecutors announced they have secured evidence that GNP’s former secretary general Kim Young-iel received a large amount of illicit political donations from businesses other than SK around last December’s presidential election.

The prosecution will question Kim today to determine whether he took money from firms, other than SK Group from which he has already admitted receiving 10 billion won, in the lead-up to the presidential election last year.

A day earlier, Kim dismissed the allegation as groundless and refused to present himself at the prosecution office, to which the prosecution replied that it would seek an arrest warrant for him should he continue to resist coming forward.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr