Cash went to researcher in U.S.
Former Hwang team member got $30,000, panel says
December 28, 2005 ? As if Korea's cloning scandal weren't complicated enough, an investigating panel added a new element yesterday - cash.
The Seoul National University review board looking into the rise and fall of the nation's premier scientist, Hwang Woo-suk, said that a former researcher on Dr. Hwang's team had received $30,000 in cash from Dr. Hwang just before he was scheduled to meet with a Korean broadcast news team. The panel said it would leave it to Korea's prosecution to look into the origins and circumstances of the payment.
Kim Sun-jong, now working at the University of Pittsburgh, received the cash from Curie Ahn, Dr. Hwang's spokeswoman, and another of his research associates, the review board said.
The board interviewed Mr. Kim over the weekend after he returned to Korea from Pittsburgh. During that questioning, Mr. Kim reportedly said that his father had received the money from Dr. Ahn and Yoon Hyun-soo, a faculty member of Hanyang University. He said he had been hospitalized at the time the two couriers brought the cash and so they had given it to his father. He said he did not learn about the money until sometime later. He carried it back to Seoul and delivered it to the review board for safekeeping. Board members said Dr. Ahn and Mr. Yoon had both told the panel earlier about the payments to Mr. Kim. It was unclear whether Mr. Kim knew about those disclosures to the board before he returned here for questioning.
One of the co-authors of Dr. Hwang's 2005 Science journal research paper told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday that Dr. Hwang's team had also given money to another Korean researcher, Park Jong-hyuk. He said that both Mr. Kim and Mr. Park had received $10,000 from Dr. Ahn when she, Mr. Yoon and a YTN broadcast journalist traveled to Pittsburgh to meet them earlier this month.
The YTN reporter, Kim Jin-du, said he had also carried some of the money, which apparently had been divided among travelers to dodge the U.S. reporting requirements when carrying cash into the country.
Mr. Yoon of Hanyang University said he had given another $20,000 to Mr. Kim's father in November while Mr. Kim was hospitalized. Another researcher on Dr. Hwang's team said that Mr. Kim was then receiving no salary from the university.
by Special Reporting Team <[log in to unmask]>
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