Prosecutors fail again to arrest former opposition party lawmaker

SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- Prosecutors failed late Sunday to arrest a ranking
member of the opposition who has been defying arrest on charges of taking illegal
election funds.

A court issued a warrant earlier this week against Kim Min-seok, member of the
decision-making supreme council of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) who
stands accused of bribery.
Kim, 44, has been staging a sit-in protest at his party headquarters, denying the
charges and accusing the prosecution of launching a politically motivated probe
against him.
He is accused of receiving illicit donations worth hundreds of millions of won
from several business acquaintances ahead of the parliamentary elections in
April. A former legislator who ran unsuccessfully against President Lee Myung-bak
for Seoul mayor in 2002, Kim failed to win a National Assembly seat this year.
Prosecutors imposed an overseas travel ban on Kim last month and have been
tracing his money transfers since then. Kim has refused several prosecutors'
summons.
At around 4:10 p.m. a dozen prosecutors arrived at the building housing the
party's headquarters, to find it barricaded with three vehicles.
About 100 DP lawmakers and party officials have physically blocked prosecutors
attempting to execute the arrest warrant issued on Friday.
The attempt marked the second time prosecutors have failed to arrest Kim,
following a similar incident late Friday.
Before the court issued the warrant, prosecutors had summoned him twice for
questioning, but he did not appear.
"This is suppression of the opposition party," said Rep. Suh Gab Won who is the
deputy floor leader for the party.
Prosecutors tried several times to climb barricades and eventually withdrew at
around 5:05 p.m.
"How could you be so uncooperative, when you were a ruling party a year ago, "
said a prosecution official. "We failed to execute the warrant, but we will come
up with some other measures."
ygkim@yna.co.kr
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