17 Arrested for Smuggling North Korean Drug
By Byun Duk-kun
Staff Reporter
The police on Monday arrested 17 people suspected of smuggling more than 5 kilograms of drugs that originated in North Korea.
The Mapo Police Station in Seoul announced the 17 arrests included a 57-year-old drug trafficker, known as Lee. Officers arrested Lee on charges of smuggling and distributing 5.4 kilograms of methamphetamine, more commonly called ``philopon'' in South Korea, and booked nine others without detention.
The police booked nine people, including a 40-year-old head of a distribution company, identified by his surname Uhm, on charges of circulating and using the North Korean drug. The police confiscated 2.5 kilograms of philopon worth more than 12.5 billion won ($10.4 million) in market price.
The South Korean drug dealer, Lee, allegedly bought 5.4 kilograms of the illegal drug from a 40-year-old Korean-Chinese man, identified by his surname Lee, in China on three different occasions from February to September last year, according to the police.
The suspected South Korea drug dealer allegedly smuggled the illegal substance by hiding it among Chinese gems being imported to the country, according to the police.
The police said 5.4 kilograms of methamphetamine is enough to inject 180,000 people and is worth more than 25 billion won in market price.
The police also said it has secured a testimony from one of the arrested drug traffickers, identified by his surname Park, that the drug was from a large Chinese crime ring called ``Samhaphoi,'' and that its origin was North Korea.
The suspected South Korean drug dealer, Lee, is still on the loose in China. The South Korean police asked the Chinese police for cooperation in bringing down the suspected drug dealer.
benjamine@koreatimes.co.kr
02-23-2004 17:36

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Former Spy Agency Official Dismisses Ex-President's Role in Fund Scheme
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Former state agency official Kim Ki-sup on Mondayday dismissed former President Kim Young-sam's involvement in a 1996 illegal fund scheme, saying the man who gave 94 billion won ($80 million) in secret funds to then-ruling party lawmaker for the party's election campaign was not the former president, but himself.
He made the point clear in an affidavit he has submitted to the Seoul High Court, which is handling the case.
Kim's claims contradict an earlier testimony by the lawmaker Kang Sam-jae of the Grand National Party, who claimed during an appeal court hearing that he took the money in person from former president Kim at his office in Chong Wa Dae.
Kim and Kang are on a trial for their involvement in the high-profile scheme. It had been said the money originated from the state budget set for the National Security Planning, now the National Intelligence Agency, until Kang dropped the bombshell earlier this month.
Now speculations are rampant over the origin of the money. A rumor suggests the 94 billion won was part of the illegal election funds the former president secretly collected from businesses before 1996.
However, the former spy catcher dismissed all the rumors surrounding the ex-president, claiming that he directly gave the money over three occasions to Kang. He also made it clear that the money was from the budget of the spy agency.
``I ordered my subordinate to prepare the money all in 100 million-won checks in 1996,'' Kim said. ``I met Kang three times at three hotels in Seoul and delivered the money.''
Kang's lawyers dismissed Kim's claims as a show of loyalty for the former president.
The former president has yet to respond to the claims made in the affidavit. The appeal court plans to have former president Kim stand as a witness for a testimony in the next hearing set for March 12.
jj@koreatimes.co.kr
02-23-2004 21:52

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Bhutto alleges nuclear 'cover-up'
Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist AQ Khan could not have leaked nuclear secrets on his own, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto says.
Ms Bhutto said she believed senior government or military figures must have known what was going on.
"We believe there's a cover-up... there are certainly others involved," she told the BBC's Asia Today programme.
A government spokesman rejected the allegations and said the scientist had acted independently throughout.
Dr Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, was pardoned in January after admitting leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Many observers are sceptical that he could have done what he says he did without the powerful military knowing.
'Real culprits'
Ms Bhutto said she wanted the matter investigated further - but she doubted any light would be shed on the role of President Pervez Musharraf, whom she accused of being "reckless".
"General Musharraf would like the world to believe that Dr Khan is responsible for the export of nuclear technology, but nobody in Pakistan buys that," she told the BBC.
I'd like to know whether the president or the prime minister changed that policy [of no nuclear exports] or whether the army acted in defiance
Former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto
The scientist was a scapegoat who people thought had been carrying out orders, she said.
The fact he had been pardoned sent the wrong message to would-be exporters of weapons of mass destruction.
"We want the real culprits identified so that this can never happen again."
Ms Bhutto said she had run a policy of "no exports of nuclear technology" when she had been in power.
"I'd like to know whether the president or the prime minister changed that policy or whether the army acted in defiance of the president or prime minister, or whether intelligence acted as an independent operator."
Ms Bhutto, one of President Musharraf's bitterest critics, has been living in self-imposed exile in Britain and the United Arab Emirates since 1999. She faces a string of corruption cases if she returns to Pakistan.
'Dishonest"
The Pakistani government has said throughout the scandal that Dr Khan and other scientists acted entirely of their own accord.
Speaking to the same programme, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed denied any cover-up.
"Not a single government was involved in this nuclear proliferation - that was a personal act of these two or three scientists."
He accused Ms Bhutto of being corrupt, dishonest and power-hungry, and of manipulating the media.
Pakistan had launched investigations when it had been informed of possible wrongdoing by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the minister said.
Meanwhile, a court in Pakistan has rejected petitions filed by the families of six detained scientists and officials accused of leaking nuclear technology.
The Lahore High Court judges made their decision after the government showed them classified information relating to the investigation under way.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/3515167.stm
Published: 2004/02/23 20:01:26 GMT
? BBC MMIV
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>> HORSE TRADE WATCH CONTINUED...

CIA Chief, Pakistan Discussed Bin Laden
By MUNIR AHMAD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -
The head of the CIA discussed the hunt for Osama bin Laden as well as ways to fight nuclear proliferation during a visit to Pakistan this month, senior government officials said Monday.
"Both sides shared views and information," an intelligence official, familiar with the talks between CIA Director George Tenet and Pakistani intelligence officials, told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad declined to comment and the Foreign Ministry refused to confirm that Tenet had visited.
The meetings came just days after the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, acknowledged leaking nuclear technology to Libya, North Korea and Iran. News of the scope of Khan's activities has caused worldwide alarm and embarrassed this South Asian country.
Tenet discussed the implications of the nuclear black market with Pakistani intelligence officials, the official said.
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan on Feb. 5, following his confession. Washington has said the pardon was an internal Pakistani decision, and that it was most concerned with shutting down Khan's network.
Tenet's visit came more than a week before Pakistan began pouring troops into its remote tribal regions in an operation to round up al-Qaida suspects. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Paramilitary forces in recent days have boosted security in the lawless border region, in Pakistan's ultra-conservative North West Frontier Province. But authorities insist bin Laden is not the military's immediate target.
Still, troops have stepped up patrols in the rugged area, placing heavy guns on key roads and taking positions in sandbagged bunkers in the key town of Wana in tribal South Waziristan.
"I cannot tell you about the exact timing or place of the operation, but it will start very soon," said Mohammed Azam Khan, a local government official.
Khan said that all those suspected of being "foreign terrorists" will be arrested.
"Tribal elders have given us an assurances that no foreign national is now living in their areas, but still we want to satisfy ourselves," he said. "A house-to-house search will be conducted."
The operation is the fourth of its kind since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States. It will center on suspected Taliban and al-Qaida men who authorities believe have married Pakistani women and are living in the tribal areas.
Pakistan has been a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, and Pakistani security forces have captured more than 500 suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Among the captured are key figures in bin Laden's terrorist network.
Musharraf escaped two assassination attempts in December which he blamed on al-Qaida. The government has provided no evidence to support his claim.

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