By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter



The prosecution Thursday indicted six persons for their involvement in the Haengdam Island scandal, including two of President Roh Moo-hyun’s close confidants.
Chung Tae-in, former presidential secretary for economic affairs, was indicted without detention on charges of abusing his authority to assist a controversial resort development project.

Moon Chung-in, former chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative, was also indicted without detention accused of making false official documents.

However, prosecutors failed to bring power abuse charges against Jeong Chan-yong, former presidential secretary for personnel affairs, because he was not holding public office at that time.

The Korea Highway Corporation (KHC) established a joint company with Econ, a Singaporean investment company, in 1999 to develop a resort complex on the island in South Chungchong Province.

Kim Jae-bok, chairman of the Hangdam Island Development Corporation (HIDC), managed the project after EKI, a subsidiary of Econ, designated Kim as supervisor.

The state-run KHC struck an unfair contract with HIDC last year risking taxpayers’ money, with the then-KHC head, Oh Jum-rok, pushing ahead with the deal.

Prosecutors said Kim used his influence with government officials and high-ranking Singaporean officials for the contract.

Chung exercised his influence over the KHC, and Moon wrote a fake letter of support for Kim indicating that the Korean government supported the project, according to the prosecution.

The prosecution already arrested Kim and Oh last month on charges of fraud and negligence in performance of duty, respectively.

Prosecutors have conducted investigations into the Haengdam Island scandal since June when the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) sent the case to the prosecution after its own investigation.

The BAI had suspected that three of Roh’s aides - Chung, Moon and Jeong - were involved in the scandal, but had not requested that the prosecution investigate them, saying their misdeeds were not that grave.

But the prosecution indicted two of them, saying they violated the law by participating in the privately driven project as if it were a state-run. However, prosecutors failed to uncover why the three former officials helped the project, whether they received money in exchange for influence-peddling, and whether any other high-ranking figures were involved.

An allegation that Calvin Eu, Singapore Ambassador to Seoul, was involved in the project has not been confirmed.

The ambassador gave Jeong a letter in June last year affirming the country’s confidence in Kim.

The prosecution suspects the three presidential aides trusted Kim and believed the project was state-driven due to the letter. But it failed to investigate the ambassador, as he is a foreign diplomat.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr