Prosecutors summoned Lee Soon-ja, wife of former president Chun Doo-hwan, for questioning over his alleged secret funds on Tuesday afternoon.
The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office said that Lee was questioned over the source of 13 billion won presumed to be part of Chun’s undisclosed money.

The questioning has signaled a move by the prosecution to expand its probe into the left-over slush funds raised by the general-turned-president during his iron-fisted rule between 1981 and 1988.

There have been allegations that Chun had stashed away more than 200 billion won in slush funds during his tenure.

Early last month, the prosecution said that it has found an additional 10 billion won believed to be part of former President Chun Doo-hwan’s secret money.

The new finding increased the confirmed amount of Chun’s slush funds to 37 billion won, including 16.7 billion won held by Chun’s second son Jae-yong and 10.6 billion won managed by his close aides.

Investigators discovered that some 10 billion won in Chun’s money was transferred to several bank accounts with borrowed names from 1998 to 2002, but have yet to track down the source of the money.

While tracing the flow of Jae-yong’s 16.7 billion won, the prosecution also found out that 1 billion won worth of bonds was transferred to an account held by one of Chun’s in-laws.

The 1 billion won could be part of Chun’s leftover undisclosed political funds totaling 100 billion won. In 1995, the prosecution had presumed that the money was deposited into hundreds of accounts with fake names.

There also have been lingering suspicions on buildings and land owned by Chun’s other son.

In November last year, Chun’s house in Yonhui-dong, western Seoul, which was put up for auction for his unpaid fines, was purchased by his brother-in-law at about 1.6 billion won, twice as much as the appraised value, and the source of the money was the center of attention.

Chun and his family have denied illegal fundraising, claiming that the money was from Chun’s father-in-law Lee Kyu-dong, who died in 2001.

However, the prosecution confirmed some 7.3 billion won of Jae-yong’s 16.7 billion won slush funds are part of Chun’s secret funds.