Cash Went North; ‘Why’ Not Clear

An investigation in Seoul is casting some shadow on a Nobel Peace prize winner. Government investigators in Seoul have discovered that the South Korean government transferred $200 million to North Korea before the historic summit meeting between the two countries' leaders, Kim Jong Il and Kim Dae Jung, in June 2000. The same year, Kim Dae Jung was awarded the Nobel prize for his role in building peace between the two divided nations. Although Kim had earlier denied knowledge of the transfer, his spokeswoman implicitly acknowledged that the money may have smoothed the path to the summit meeting. Mr. Kim himself said that the money was justified "if (it) was spent on promoting South-North economic co-operation". The amount was lent by the state-run Korean Development Bank (KDB) to a Hyundai subsidiary, which in turn transferred the money to the Pyongyang government. – YaleGlobal