Still Waiting for "Harvest Time"

A Korean indicted, but no trials in sight

The long, plodding investigation of Korean lobbying in the U.S. stepped up a notch last week. With much fanfare, the Justice Department released a previously sealed indictment charging Tongsun Park, the onetime Washington rice-and-influence broker, with 36 violations of federal statutes, including conspiracy to bribe Congressmen, mail fraud, illegal campaign gifts, and failure to register as an agent of the South Korean government. Hinting that more indictments might be coming, Attorney General Griffin Bell suggested coyly, "We'll have to see what the harvest will bring."

Just whom Bell had in mind was not altogether certain. Former California Representative Richard Hanna was not only named as a co-conspirator in the Park indictment, but he was also described as having acted as an agent for South Korea while in Congress and having received over $100,000 for his services. Yet Justice officials were not sure they had enough evidence to indict Hanna. One immediate effect of the Park indictment was clear, however: the chances that the Korean would show up in Washington again were slimmer than ever.

To be sure, after Park's indictment was unsealed, the White House revealed that President Carter had already asked South Korea's President Park Chung Hee to deliver the elusive wheeler-dealer to the U.S. for questioning before the House Ethics Committee by Special Counsel Leon Jaworski. But the Korean leader has turned aside repeated inquiries by U.S. diplomats about Park, often citing an unwillingness to abridge his "human rights." Rejecting the latest entreaties from Washington, Seoul's Foreign Minister Park Tong Jin observed curtly that "as a fully sovereign and law-governed nation, Korea finds no reason to turn over one of its nationals merely because he is suspected of having violated foreign law." Tongsun Park, who left London for Korea in August just as the Ethics Committee was beginning its hearings, made a similar argument. After a 3 1/2-hr. conference with Park regime officials, he told reporters he would not return to the U.S. Said he: "I am a free citizen in a free country where human rights should be respected."

The U.S. has no extradition treaty with South Korea. But Tongsun Park was clearly operating at least part time on behalf of the Korean CIA before he fled Washington last fall to avoid questioning, and Seoul surely could serve him up if it seemed necessary to appease American critics. Seeking to show that that kind of appeasement might be necessary, a freshman New York Congressman, Bruce F. Caputo, urged the House to lop off $110 million earmarked for South Korea in a foreign aid appropriations bill. Caputo's amendment was defeated by a vote of 205 to 181.

Caputo insisted that the unexpectedly close vote "definitely was a signal" to Seoul to cooperate in the influence-peddling investigation. But there was no sign that the Koreans would read it that way--or should. The White House does not want to threaten to reduce or eliminate aid. The decision to start pulling out part of America's 33,000 ground troops from South Korea by next year has bothered the U.S.'s other Asian allies, notably Japan. Also, the Koreans still have plenty of friends in Congress. In another move last week, the House decided by a 268-to-120 vote to kill a proposal to cut all funds for Korea. During the debate, Speaker Tip O'Neill got into an angry exchange with Caputo, whom he lectured sternly: "Korea has always been an ally of America."

Of course, it was O'Neill who, only last July, had talked Jaworski into taking charge of the Ethics Committee investigation. Jaworski may still believe, as his deputy Peter White insisted last week, that there will be "tremendous resentment" among Americans if Seoul does not cooperate. Yet many Congressmen wondered, with reason, if their constituents really care that much; and there was no doubt that some of the lawmakers were just as happy that Tongsun Park in all probability would never come back to talk.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.