Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo and the politicians involved in an alleged bribery vowed Monday to cooperate with the prosecution investigation into the scandal.
The move came amid a political firestorm over a brief memo found in the pants pocket of Sung Wan-jong, the former head of a mid-size construction company, who committed suicide last week.
Sung, a construction tycoon and former lawmaker, was a major target of the ongoing investigation into the country’s overseas resources development projects pushed by the former Lee Myung-bak government.
Listed on the memo are the names of eight heavyweight politicians and won figures next to six of them, indicating that money had been delivered.
The eight politicians include President Park Geun-hye’s two former chiefs of staff — Huh Tae-yeol and Kim Ki-choon — as well as her current chief of staff, Lee Byung-kee, and Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo.
No won figures were written next to Park’s current chief and the prime minister.
Prime Minister Lee said he will appear before prosecutors over their ongoing investigation into the scandal, if asked.
Lee said in a parliamentary session that there will be “no sanctuary” in the investigation, and he won’t be an exception.
Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn vowed a thorough probe into the scandal during the parliamentary session. The comment came a day after Park said she hopes the prosecution will strictly deal with the allegations without providing sanctuary, in accordance with the law and principles.
Also Monday, Huh and Kim — Park’s two former chiefs of staff — pledged that they will cooperate with a prosecution probe into the corruption scandal.
The memo showed a 700 million-won figure written next to Huh’s name while $100,000 was written next to Kim’s name, along with the date of Sept. 26, 2006.
Sung had claimed in a telephone interview with a newspaper just before his suicide last week that he gave $100,000 to Kim at a Seoul hotel in September 2006, around the time that Kim accompanied Park on a visit to Belgium and Germany.
The memo also showed that 200 million won was written next to Hong Moon-jong, a ruling party lawmaker who assumed a key post in the Park camp in the 2012 presidential election.
Hong said he will also cooperate with a prosecution probe, noting he did not commit any wrongdoing.
Kim Moo-sung, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, said he will cooperate with a possible prosecution probe into the campaign finances of the 2012 presidential election.
He said at a meeting with key party officials at the National Assembly that he was in charge of the presidential election and there were no illegal campaign funds.
He also pressed the opposition party to accept a prosecution probe into campaign finances for the presidential election. (Yonhap)
