SEOUL, Jan 30: Invoking national interest, South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung defended his record on North Korea on Thursday after a government probe revealed millions of dollars were secretly transferred to the Stalinist regime.

Opposition lawmakers have charged that Kim’s government bribed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to host a landmark summit in Pyongyang in 2000, the first ever between leaders of the rival Koreas and considered a crowning achievement by the outgoing administration of Kim Dae-Jung.

A three-month probe by the government’s Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) found that 200 million dollars, withdrawn from a state-owned bank in Seoul just before the summit, had been transferred to North Korea.

No bribery allegations were examined by the board, whose report focused strictly on following the money trail to Pyongyang.

Board member Sohn Sung-Tae told reporters the 223.5 billion won was “used to finance projects in North Korea” without going into details.

He said the money was part of a 400 billion-won loan from state-run Korean Development Bank (KDB) to a subsidiary of the Hyundai group, and withdrawn June 7, a week before the summit.

South Korean prosecutors are investigating allegations of wrongdoing and 15 business executives and bank officials have been barred from leaving the country.

The opposition Grand National Party (GNP), which controls the National Assembly, called for parliamentary hearings and the appointment of an independent counsel.

“President Kim must elaborate on the secret deal with North Korea to bring about the inter-Korean summit, including how much and how often money was paid, and take political and legal responsibility for it,” the GNP said in a statement.

The probe was launched in October after opposition politicians and media reports alleged that Hyundai Merchant Marine transferred the funds to Pyongyang on the orders of the government and with the help of the National Intelligence Service.

After initially refusing to comply with the probe, Hyundai Merchant Marine on Tuesday submitted documents requested by auditors hoping to determine where the money was sent.

President Kim, already on the defensive after North Korea snubbed his top envoy to the communist state this week despite an implied agreement that the two would meet, said no prosecutions should follow revelations of the secret fund.

He also asked for understanding from the South Korean people, divided over his signature “sunshine” policy of engagement with a Stalinist regime Washington says has been pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons drive in violation of international accords, sparking a three-month security crisis.—AFP