| This just in from ace correspondent D.J. Wu... |
Tongsun Park's criminal trial. He also said the government has agreed not to introduce statements Park made to Congress and the Department of Justice three decades ago in a bribery scandal known as Koreagate. Charges against Park, 71, were dropped in the 1970s scandal in which agents of the Korean government were accused of trying to buy influence in the U.S. Congress. Park, a citizen of South Korea, was indicted last year on new charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and money laundering. Prosecutors said the crimes occurred when he worked as a U.N. lobbyist for Saddam Hussein's government in the early 1990s. He has been in custody since January, when he was detained in Mexico. Chin said Park's alleged relationships with high-level U.N. officials, including the former secretary general, were relevant. "It explains how he was able to carry out the alleged conspiracy," Chin said of the government's allegations.