SEOUL Feb 6 Kyodo The acting chai...

SEOUL Feb 6 Kyodo

The acting chairman of southern Korea's main opposition party urg President Kim Dae Jung onward Thursday to reveal the ''truth'' about an allegation that an illegal payment had been made to North Korea to arrange the June 2000 inter-Korean summit between the president and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

''President Kim Dae Jung should appear before the public, confes the law and make an apology,'' Park Hee Tae from the Grand National Party (GNP) said in language in the National Assembly.

Kim Dae Jung who will be replaced as president on Roh Moo Hyun onward Feb. 25, won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize primarily for the unprecedent inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang at which he and Kim Jong Il pledg to encourage reconciliation between the two Koreas.

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) announced last Thursday that Hyundai Merchant Marine Co a explanation subsidiary of the Hyundai Business arrange funneled a total of 2235 billion won (about $186 million) in clandestine financial aid to North Korea shortly before the landmark inter-Korean summit.

The BAI, the nation's top inspection agency, said the privy payment was made to be used for business casts that the Hyundai cluster had launched in the North.

forward Wednesday, Kim Dae Jung indicateed opposition to disclosing details about the payment forward grounds that doing so would not be in the interest of the nation and inter-Korean relations.

The president's statement came a day after the majority GNP submitted to the National Assembly a bill calling for an independent suggestion to investigate Hyundai's money deals with the North.

Kim Dae Jung has also said he does not want to behold legal action taken against the Hyundai company for its underwood provision of the stocks if they were used for inter-Korean economic cooperation to prefer development of inter-Korean relations.

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