KIM YONG QUESTIONED BY PROSECUTION

[Anchor Lead]

Institute for Democracy Assistant Director Kim Yong was questioned for the first time since he was arrested for receiving illegal political funds. The prosecution is trying to find out whether the money was actually spend on the presidential election and, if so, then-candidate Lee Jae-myung had either instructed or knew but ignored it.

[Pkg]

Institute for Democracy Assistant Director Kim Yong was arrested for receiving some 840 million won in illegal political funds between last April and August. The prosecution questioned him for the first time two days after an arrest warrant for Kim was issued. The key to the investigation is finding out the nature of the money he allegedly received and where it was spent. There was a testimony that Kim Yong was the one who demanded 2 billion won for the last presidential election from former Seongnam Development Corporation executive Yoo Dong-gyu. Subsequently, the prosecution leans toward the possibility that Kim had used the money to manage the campaign organization ahead of the presidential primary. Investigators are to focus on if DP leader Lee Jae-myung had instructed or knew about it but ignored the whole affair during the money transaction. Kim has been emphatically denying all the charges and is now getting ready for a trial by retaining more lawyers. For two days in a row, Lee Jae-myung uploaded postings denying his involvement. He said that the Daejang-dong developers must have hated him for taking away the development profits and asked why would they give presidential election funds to someone they loathed. Meanwhile, the prosecution is looking into the allegation that Kim Yong had urged Yoo Dong-gyu to be hospitalized immediately before the SDC executive was subject to search and seizure last September. Kim supposedly said that Democratic Party political affairs coordination official Jeong Jin-sang had talked to the chief prosecutor in charge of the investigation and the prosecution had agreed not to apprehend him if he was in the hospital. Yoo had at the time refused the prosecution's summons and gone to the emergency room where he was apprehended. Then-Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief Lee Jung-soo who oversaw the investigation stated that he doesn't know Jeong at all and he had conducted a fair investigation.