{"id":156530,"date":"2018-03-14T02:46:13","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T06:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=156530"},"modified":"2018-03-14T02:46:13","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T06:46:13","slug":"another-ex-s-korean-leader-questioned-in-corruption-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/03\/14\/another-ex-s-korean-leader-questioned-in-corruption-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"Another ex S. Korean leader questioned in corruption probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cI<\/a>
\u201cI stand here today feeling wretched,\u201d former President Lee Myung-bak said in televised remarks after arriving at a Seoul prosecutors’ office. \u201cI am very sorry for causing worry for the people.\u201d (Photo By Gobierno de Chile – 13.11.2010 Gira a Asia, CC BY 2.0)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – Prosecutors on Wednesday were questioning South Korea’ s\u00a0conservative former President Lee Myung-bak over\u00a0corruption\u00a0allegations, making him the latest of the country’s\u00a0leaders entangled\u00a0in\u00a0scandal.<\/p>\n

The move came about two weeks after prosecutors demanded a 30-year prison term for his conservative successor, Park Geun-hye, over a separate bribery scandal that led to weeks of massive anti-government protests. Park is jailed as she awaits a court verdict set for early next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stand here today feeling wretched,\u201d Lee said\u00a0in\u00a0televised remarks after arriving at a Seoul prosecutors’ office. \u201cI am very sorry for causing worry for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

South\u00a0Korean\u00a0politicians accused of misdoing often apologize for causing trouble while still denying wrongdoing. Lee has previously called the investigation \u201cpolitical revenge\u201d orchestrated by the current liberal government of President Moon Jae-in, a statement that prompted fury from Moon.<\/p>\n

Lee also referred to the 2009 suicide of\u00a0ex-liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, who leapt to his death amid a high-profile\u00a0corruption\u00a0investigation of his family when Lee was president. Moon, who was Roh’s\u00a0chief of staff, previously called the Roh investigation by the Lee government politically motivated.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors accuse Lee of taking about 1.75 billion won ($1.6 million) from the National Intelligence Service, the country’s\u00a0main spy agency, for personal purposes through his aides.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Lee took other illicit money from business groups including Samsung and a former lawmaker. South\u00a0Korean\u00a0media said the illicitly obtained funds totalled 11 billion won ($10 million).<\/p>\n

Lee is also accused of using an auto parts manufacturer called DAS as a channel to establish illicit slush funds amounting to 30 billion won ($28 million) and embezzling its official funds.<\/p>\n

One of Lee’s\u00a0brothers is DAS’ largest shareholder, but prosecutors suspect Lee is its de facto owner.<\/p>\n

Nearly all former presidents\u00a0in\u00a0South Korea, their family members and key aides have been embroiled\u00a0in\u00a0scandals either just before they ended their terms or after they left office.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s\u00a0first president, Syngman Rhee, resigned and fled to Hawaii\u00a0in\u00a01960 amid protests over allegations of vote-rigging. Park’s\u00a0father, Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for 18 years following a 1961 coup, was gunned down by his own spy chief during a 1979 drinking party.<\/p>\n

Park’s\u00a0successors Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, both former army generals, spent time\u00a0in\u00a0jail after leaving office for bribery, treason and other charges. Presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung saw their terms tainted by\u00a0corruption\u00a0scandals involving their sons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – Prosecutors on Wednesday were questioning South Korea’ s\u00a0conservative former President Lee Myung-bak over\u00a0corruption\u00a0allegations, making him …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":156531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[2383,48238],"class_list":["post-156530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-park-geun-hye","tag-president-lee-myung-bak","mauthors-hyung-jin-kim","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}