YONHAP NEWS

Opposition party demands sacking intelligence chief

SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's main opposition party on Sunday demanded an apology from President Roh Moo-hyun over the accessing of real estate records of a leading presidential contender by the national intelligence agency.

   The Grand National Party (GNP) also called upon Roh to sack Kim Man-bok, chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), claiming the NIS operated a task force to monitor the political activities of Lee Myung-bak, the former Seoul mayor, over the past three years.

   "President Roh should apologize to the people for the NIS's illegal use of computer data with a view to dredging up the past of Lee and his relatives," Rep. Ahn Sang-soo of the GNP said in an emergency press briefing.

   He also urged the NIS chief to step down of his own accord and called upon the prosecution to punish those involved to prevent illegal political orchestration and surveillance.

   But the NIS said one of its workers reviewed the transaction records of Lee and his relatives on a tip-off that the presidential bidder hid a large amount of property under borrowed or false names.

   "An analysis of the records showed the tip-off was not verified, so the worker destroyed all the documents without writing a report or revealing it to the outside," the NIS said.

   Lee, the top contender in all opinion polls, is running to become the presidential candidate of the GNP. But Kim Jae-joung, Lee's brother-in-law, is at the center of the prosecution's investigation into allegations that Lee improperly acquired wealth through real estate speculation.

   Kim sued for defamation several key party officials who belong to the camps of Lee's rivals, and the prosecution questioned him and several party officials over the claim. The party officials allege that Lee bought large land holdings across the country in the 1970s and 1980s, resold them for a profit and hid most of the wealth in the names of his relatives.

   Critics allege that Lee, who once headed a major construction company, Hyundai, might have bought the land using insider information, which is considered land speculation and punishable by law.

   Lee has vehemently denied the accusations, arguing that he has already been cleared of the charges and that the Roh administration has been using government agencies to launch a smear campaign against him.

   ssj@yna.co.kr
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