By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Prosecutors detained a Korean-American businessman Wednesday to question him about allegations that he released tape recordings of conversations eavesdropped on by the nation’s spy agency in 1997.

Prosecutors recently launched an investigation into the eavesdropping scandal, which revealed that Samsung Group offered illegal campaign funds to the then ruling party presidential candidate and other political heavyweights prior to the 1997 presidential election.

The Korean-American, known as William Park, is suspected of having obtained some of the tapes from Kong Un-yong, former head of the wiretapping team of the Agency for National Security Planning, the predecessor of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and recently copied and released them to the media.

Prosecutors also raided Kong’s home and office to find out whether he has kept any documents or wiretapped recordings.

Kong, who confessed he had organized the illegal tapping team, codenamed ``Mirim,’’ in the 1990s, tried to kill himself at his home on Tuesday after releasing a statement about the team and Park.

According to the statement, Park asked Samsung executives to give him 400 million won in 1998, threatening he would disclose the recordings about the group’s illegal campaign funds.

NIS investigators were questioning Park about the illegal release of the tapes after the agency blocked him from leaving the country for the U.S. on Tuesday.

Prosecutors are investigating who he obtained the tapes from, whether it was he who leaked them to the media as well as why he tried to go to the U.S., as there is suspicion that he planned to secure additional tapes there.

Park claimed that he met the Samsung executives but did not ask for money.

Prosecutors will investigate another allegation as well, that Park told former Culture and Tourism minister Park Jie-won during the Kim Dae-jung administration about the recordings to help Kong and other former NIS agents, who were dismissed in 1998, to be reinstated in the spy agency.

Justice Minister Chun Jung-bae yesterday expressed his opposition to calls by opposition political parties for an independent counsel to investigate the wiretapping and Samsung’s illegal campaign funds.

Instead, Chun requested that prosecutors conduct thorough investigations into the case.

``The case is a combination of the abuse of power by politicians, conglomerates, the media, prosecutors and the spy agency,’’ Chun said during an interview with a MBC radio program.

``Although several former and incumbent prosecutors are suspected to have received kickbacks from Samsung, the Prosecutor’s Office will conduct a fair and thorough investigation into the allegations,’’ he said.

Prosecutor General Kim Jong-bin also said they plan to collect and investigate all the illegal tapes recorded by the NIS.

Kong claimed in the statement that Mirim made thousands of the illegal tapes, and that he returned about 200 tapes he had kept to the NIS. But the NIS says it destroyed the tapes in 1999, while suspicions have been raised that some of them were kept and used for personal aims by high-profile figures.

Kim said they will first focus on how the recordings were made, kept and leaked, and then investigate the tapes’ contents with the bribe and embezzlement allegations.

``We don’t know how many tapes are still kept and what the contents are, and there are rumors that the recordings were fabricated. To confirm the suspicions, we will collect the remaining tapes and review them in cooperation with the NIS,’’ Kim said.

Prosecutors will investigate Kong’s claim that Mirim eavesdropped into conversations of top-ranking politicians, executives of conglomerates and senior journalists indiscriminately.

The prosecutor general said his office will also investigate broadcasters and newspapers about the tape leakage, but added that whether they would take legal action against them is another matter.

Prosecutors today will hear from a member of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a civic group that filed a complaint with prosecutors against about 20 politicians and business executives who were allegedly involved in the illegal campaign funds.

Meanwhile, Kim Ki-sam, the former NIS agent staying in Pennsylvania who first disclosed the existence of the wiretapping team to the media, said he would come in for investigation if prosecutors request that U.S. law enforcement authorities hand him over to Korea.

However, Kim says he wants a fair investigation but believes he would not receive one in Korea, indicating that he would not voluntarily return home.

The union of Kia Motors said it will file a suit against those mentioned in the recordings on the allegation that Samsung provided illegal funds to politicians including Lee Hoi-chang, then presidential candidate of the Grand National Party, to seek their influence on its abortive bid to acquire the Kia Motors Corp. Some of the union members have boycotted Samsung’s products.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr