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The U.S. State Department has approved the extradition of Kim Kyung-joon, the convicted ex-business partner of Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak. Kim is charged as the chief offender in the stock price manipulation of Optional Ventures Korea, a scandal that could yet engulf Lee. Kim fled to the U.S. in December 2001.
The Justice Ministry said it was notified on Wednesday afternoon by the Korean Embassy in Washington that the U.S. State Department the previous day approved Kim's extradition. The ministry will take charge of Kim at Los Angeles Airport. It will probably take about two weeks until Kim is deported.
The Justice Ministry will send investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to LA to take him over. On arrival in Seoul, he will be arrested based on a warrant issued when they requested the extradition.
Kim has been indicted on charges of manipulating the stock price of Optional Ventures Korea and embezzling W38.4 billion (US$1=W901) in small investors¡¯ money. Kim is linked to Lee through Das Co., whose largest stockholders are Lee's elder brother and brother-in-law, who are suspected of holding the shares in proxy for the former Seoul mayor. Both men deny the charge.
Prosecutors will have a number of questions for Kim, including about Lee Myung-bak¡¯s involvement in the stock price manipulation and if he is the real owner of Das Co. Prosecutor General Choung Sang-myoung told a parliamentary Judiciary Committee audit of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday the investigation will resume as soon as Kim comes home.
Park Hyung-jun, a spokesman for Lee, said the GNP candidate had consistently maintained that Kim should return home and stand trial. ¡°But we're determined to fight any attempt to abuse this case for political purposes,¡± he added. Jung Jong-bok of Lee's campaign committee said the investigation ¡®will prove that Kim is an international swindler.¡±
Choi Jae-cheon, a spokesman for the United New Democratic Party campaign committee, said, "Cataclysmic changes have started to happen in the presidential election campaign structure. The Financial Supervisory Service and prosecutors must investigate this case thoroughly." He said Lee's personal ethics, as demonstrated in apparent attempts to delay the extradition, were ¡°outside tolerable bounds¡± and called on the opposition candidate ¡°to confess his mistake to the public."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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