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South Korea’s “Extracurricular Activities” with the Kerry Campaign
By Matt Margolis | September 21, 2004
More trouble for the Kerry campaign?:
A South Korean man who met with John Kerry’s fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall’s election.
South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid “speculation” he became involved with the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party through contacts with fund-raiser Rick Yi and that his identity couldn’t be discussed further.
The Kerry campaign of course denies knowing these connections…
The department believes Chung’s contacts with donors and fund-raisers, if accurately described in reports, were “inconsistent” with the 1963 Vienna Convention that prohibits visiting foreign officials from interfering in the internal politics and affairs of host countries, a spokesman for its legal affairs office said.
Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said the campaign did not know Chung was an intelligence agent or that Yi, one of the campaign’s key fund-raisers in the Asian-American community, was meeting with him until it was brought to light by the AP.
The AP first reported this spring that Yi and other Kerry fund-raisers and donors had met with Chung, but at the time Chung was only identified as a diplomat. Yi resigned from the Kerry campaign after the story, and Kerry returned $4,000 in donations he had solicited because of concerns about their origins.
AP was alerted to the meetings and Chung’s identity as an intelligence agent by Democratic donors and fund-raisers who said they were uncomfortable with the activities.
U.S. officials said Chung’s activities raised concern that he or his government were trying “to influence the fall presidential election through ‘extracurricular activities.’”
Business as usual for the Kerry campaign? Seems like the Kerry campaign reacted after Chung’s connections came to light in the press, but do we really know the Kerry campaign was unaware of this man’s connections?
Topics: John Kerry Watch |
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