South Korean largest business group Hyundai Group's President Chung Mong-hun committed suicide early Monday by jumping from his 12th floor office in central Seoul, according to local news channel YTN.
The reason for Chung's suicide was not known immediately but he had been on trial for alleged involvement in a secret money transfer to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea just before the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.
Earlier this year, South Korean former President Kim Dae-jung admitted that some of his government officials helped Hyundai Group to transmit 200 million US dollars to Pyongyang before the summit meeting between Kim Dae-jung and DPRK top leader Kim Jong IL in June 2000.
A female secretary found his body this morning and called police. The plutocrat was estimated to jump from his office at around 5 a.m. Monday (2000 GMT Sunday).
Television footage showed local police covered Chung's body with white cloth and sent it to Asan Hospital.
According to YTN, two letters of Chung were found, one for his wife, another for Hyundai Asan's President Kim Yoon-kyu.
In the letters, he expressed his will to bury his body in Geumgang Mountain, the only DPRK's resort that opens to South Korean ordinary tourists.
Hyundai Group's affiliate Hyundai Asan, South Korea's important automaker, is one of the South Korean operators of Seoul-Pyongyang joint projects, such as DPRK's Mount Geumgang Tour, construction of the DPRK's Kaesong Industrial Complex.
(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2003)
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