The criminal proceeds recovery division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office began searching properties linked to the family of the late president Roh Tae-woo on the morning of the 21st. Among them is the house in Yeonhui-dong, in Seoul's Seodaemun-gu, where his widow Kim Ok-sook lives. Four of the outlets we read describe the searches as still under way as they wrote.
Yonhap and the Hankook Ilbo name two grounds: violation of the act regulating the concealment of criminal proceeds, and tax evasion. The Kyunghyang Shinmun and KBS name only the first; the JoongAng Ilbo gives no legal provision. The Hankook Ilbo alone specifies that the tax count falls under the act on aggravated punishment of specific crimes.
The East Asia Cultural Foundation and the Roh Tae-woo Center are also being searched. Both are chaired by the couple's son, Roh Jae-heon, South Korea's ambassador to China. So are the homes of former aides suspected of having provided borrowed-name accounts when the money was first put aside. KBS reports that prosecutors sent a prosecutor and female investigators to the house in consideration of Kim's age.
The case came out of a divorce. According to the JoongAng Ilbo, at an appeal hearing in May 2024 between the SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong, director of the Art Center Nabi, Roh's side argued that SK had grown with help from her father's family, and submitted parts of photographs of six promissory notes of 5 billion won each, along with a memo written by her mother. KBS, the Hankook Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun put the total set down in that memo at 90.4 billion won. The JoongAng Ilbo reports that it was understood to carry the words "Sunkyong 30 billion won" together with specific sums such as "money entrusted 66.7 billion plus 9 billion".
Yonhap News TV reports that the appellate court accepted Roh's argument and recognised her contribution generously — but that the Supreme Court took a different view. It held that the money appeared to have been a bribe received while Roh Tae-woo was in office, and that even if it had been handed over it was illegal money with no claim to legal protection.
The complaint followed in October 2024. The May 18 Memorial Foundation accused Kim, Roh Soh-yeong and Roh Jae-heon of concealment and tax evasion, arguing that producing the memo in court was itself an admission that hidden assets existed. The Hankook Ilbo reports the foundation put the scale at around 126.6 billion won, counting the 90.4 billion in the memo along with 21 billion said to have been held under other names and run as insurance payments, and 15.2 billion given to public-interest foundations, among other sums.
That 15.2 billion is where prosecutors are looking hardest. The JoongAng Ilbo reports the complaint as setting out 14.7 billion won given to the East Asia Cultural Foundation between 2016 and 2021 and 500 million to the Roh Tae-woo Center in 2022. KBS reports that prosecutors suspect 15.2 billion of illegal funds was laundered as a contribution to the East Asia Cultural Foundation. The two papers do not agree on whether that 15.2 billion sits inside the memo's 90.4 billion or is added to it.
Twenty-two months passed between complaint and search. The JoongAng Ilbo lists the difficulties: more than thirty years have gone by, the material to be examined was vast, and money moved before the real-name financial system of 1993 is hard to tie to a specific holder. It reports about a year of tracing the flows before the searches. Yonhap News TV reports that prosecutors are working back past the real-name system to recover 30 billion won. Once the seized material has been examined, those involved are to be called in.
Why it is on the board
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