SEOUL, 30 December 2003 — International Olympic Committee Vice-President Kim Un-yong promised to cooperate fully after being summoned here yesterday for questioning by South Korean prosecutors over corruption allegations.
“I will tell everything to the prosecution,” Kim told journalists after arriving at the Seoul district prosecutors office.
Kim, one of South Korea’s most powerful sports leaders, has denied his involvement in corruption allegations after prosecutors arrested a former local sports official accused of bribing him.
Investigators did not confirm the exact nature of the allegations against Kim, but Yonhap news agency said the 72-year-old faces grilling over corruption, embezzlement and taking foreign currency out of the country.
Earlier this month, prosecutors arrested Lee Kwang-tae, a former Korea Olympic Committee (KOC) member who was in office from November 2000 to July 2002, for alleged corruption.
Prosecutors have refused to confirm Lee’s charges, but Yonhap said Lee is suspected of providing 100 million won ($84,170) to Kim to help secure his KOC membership. The arrest came after investigators raided Kim’s home and office and seized a safe and documents.
Kim said in a statement that he was innocent, denouncing local media reports which described him as “a corrupt figure.” Kim, who is also head of the World Taekwondo Federation, was one of several IOC members implicated in a corruption investigation surrounding the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Greeks Fear Olympics Will Cost Them Dear
In Athens, a majority of Greeks fear they will be called upon to help pay for next year’s Olympic Games.
According to a survey published Sunday 80.6 percent of those questioned believe the cost of staging the 2004 Games will be “enormous” and that “citizens will be asked to pay for it”.
But in a boost to organizers everyone consulted in the poll commissioned by the Kathimerini newspaper was confident the event would pass off successfully. The MRB survey found that over a third of the population believe the Games will degenerate into a huge commercial market — but over half (56.7 percent) are convinced the infrastructures being put in place to stage the Games are necessary for the country as a whole.
On the question of whether the Olympics should be held in Greece 59.3 percent declared they were proud Athens was the host venue against 6.2 percent who said they would prefer if they were staged elsewhere.
