日本と韓国の議論の広場

北の状況改善のため 　 米国を懐柔して日本の拉致問題を相対化したい 　 韓国のKCIAは 　 周到に 　 次期米国大統領候補ケリーに 　 金銭面で工作しているよ。

ケリー民主党大統領になったら 　 日本の「失われた10年」の復活は間違いない。クリントンではそうだった。

どうすんの日本のひ弱なあなたたち？米国は 　 半島人スパイの天下で 　 日本人に対するネガティブキャンペーンを毎日のように繰り広げているよ。あなたたちは英語もしゃべれないから 　 とても防衛することは難しいね。どうするの？

AP: Kerry Fund-Raisers, S. Korean Spy Met

JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - A South Korean embassy official who met with John Kerry fund-raisers to talk about creating a political group for Korean-Americans was in fact a spy for his country, raising concerns among U.S. officials that he or Seoul may have tried to influence the fall presidential election.

South Korean and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service at the time he was meeting with Kerry fund-raisers.

A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid "speculation" he became involved with the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party through contacts with fund-raiser Rick Yi and that his identity couldn't be discussed further.

The State Department said it has discussed Chung's reported activities with the South Korean government and has no reason to doubt Seoul's representations he was an intelligence agent.

The department believes Chung's contacts with donors and fund-raisers, if accurately described in reports, were "inconsistent" with the 1963 Vienna Convention that prohibits visiting foreign officials from interfering in the internal politics and affairs of host countries, a spokesman for its legal affairs office said.

The AP first reported this spring that Yi and other Kerry fund-raisers and donors had met with Chung, but at the time Chung was only identified as a diplomat. Yi resigned from the Kerry campaign after the AP story appeared, and Kerry returned $4,000 in donations he had solicited because of concerns about their origins.

Democratic donors and fund-raisers who said they were uncomfortable with the activities alerted the AP to the meetings and Chung's identity as an intelligence agent.

A South Korean government official in Seoul and two longtime U.S. officials in Washington, both speaking on condition of anonymity because Chung's intelligence work is classified, told the AP that Chung worked for South Korea's NIS, the country's CIA equivalent.

"It is certainly possible that these actions would not reflect an order from the top but rather point to the unaccountability of a rather high-ranking officer to pursue their own agenda or what they perceive to be the agenda of their superiors," said Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute.

South Korean officials said Yi and Chung had known each other for some time. Before moving to Los Angeles, Chung worked in South Korea's consular offices in Atlanta, where Yi was working for a high-tech company.

Yi had worked in the Clinton White House as a military attache, and eventually went into business in the Atlanta area with the son of disgraced former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. Yi began raising money for Kerry in 2003 and raised about $500,000 for Democratic causes.

Before the discussions with Chung in California, Yi had started a Korean-American political group in the Atlanta area called the Pacific Democratic Alliance, according to incorporation papers filed in March 2002 with the state of Georgia.

Kee Whan Ha, president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles and a donor to both Kerry and Republican candidates, said it was common knowledge within the community that Chung worked for intelligence.

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