I just read an interesting article in my local newspaper (the Sacramento Bee). It was buried on the bottom of the last page, but it was there nevertheless, here is what it said. A South Korean spy name Chung Byung-Man has been meeting with the Kerry campaign. At firt he was simply a South Korean embassy employee, but it turns out he is a agent for the S. Korean Intelligence Agency. This guy Chung, has been doing fund raising in asian communities for the Kerry campaign, calling himself a Korean "diplomat". The S Korean Government recently acknowledged taht Chung is an intelligence officer. Now, according to 1963 Vienna Convention, it is illegal for visiting foreign officials from interfering or influencing he political proccess of the host nation. I found this interesting, and piled on top of the memogate thing with top kerry campaign offficaialsconspiring with CBS and BIll Burkett to pass of forged documents to sink a president, it seems the democrats are thier corrupt, greedy selves.

Once again you are twisting stories to fit your own meanings. What evidence do you have to back any of your claims?

hey, if you dont want to believe it so be it. I am just reporting what I saw in my local commie newspaper, who always endorse the democrats every election. they are no friends of the republicans or conservatives, so if they are reporting something like this I believe it. the CBS scandal hasnt even hit the paper here.

Ha! That's what I figured, no evidence to back any of your claims.

lol, link?

He did say that it was in his local newspaper.

Trav, sure it wasn't titled "Opinion"? Looks more like a Shaman conspiracy.

From the AP via MSNBC

Associated Press
Updated: 3:45 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2004
WASHINGTON - A South Korean embassy official who met with John Kerry fund-raisers to talk about creating a political group for Korean-Americans was in fact a spy for his country, raising concerns among U.S. officials that he or Seoul may have tried to influence the fall presidential election.

South Korean and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, worked for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service at the time he was meeting with Kerry fund-raisers.

A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid “speculation” he became involved with the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party through contacts with fund-raiser Rick Yi and that his identity couldn’t be discussed further.

“According to international tradition, we cannot identify, we cannot say who he is, because he is intelligence people,” spokesman Min Ryu said.

The State Department said it has discussed Chung’s reported activities with the South Korean government and has no reason to doubt Seoul’s representations he was an intelligence agent.

The department believes Chung’s contacts with donors and fund-raisers, if accurately described in reports, were “inconsistent” with the 1963 Vienna Convention that prohibits visiting foreign officials from interfering in the internal politics and affairs of host countries, a spokesman for its legal affairs office said.

Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said the campaign did not know Chung was an intelligence agent or that Yi, one of the campaign’s key fund-raisers in the Asian-American community, was meeting with him until it was brought to light by the AP.

$4,000 returned

The AP first reported this spring that Yi and other Kerry fund-raisers and donors had met with Chung, but at the time Chung was only identified as a diplomat. Yi resigned from the Kerry campaign after the AP story appeared, and Kerry returned $4,000 in donations he had solicited because of concerns about their origins.

Democratic donors and fund-raisers who said they were uncomfortable with the activities alerted the AP to the meetings and Chung’s identity as an intelligence agent.

A South Korean government official in Seoul and two longtime U.S. officials in Washington, both speaking on condition of anonymity because Chung’s intelligence work is classified, told the AP that Chung worked for South Korea’s NIS, the country’s CIA equivalent.

The U.S. officials said Chung had registered with the Justice Department as a friendly foreign intelligence agent on U.S. soil, and that his activities had raised concern he or his government had tried to influence the fall presidential election through “extracurricular activities.”

Chung left in May
The FBI has not begun a formal counterintelligence investigation because Chung left the United States in May, the officials said.

The NIS dismissed any suggestion the South Korean government tried to influence American politics as a “totally groundless rumor and all fiction.”

South Korea has been frustrated over the deadlock in talks on North Korea’s nuclear activities, while at the same facing the Bush administration’s planned withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from the tense region. One expert said Chung’s actions were consistent with Seoul’s concerns with the Bush administration even if he didn’t get a direct order.

“It is certainly possible that these actions would not reflect an order from the top but rather point to the unaccountability of a rather high-ranking officer to pursue their own agenda or what they perceive to be the agenda of their superiors,” said Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute.

“But, nonetheless, this sort of intervention certainly provides a faithful reflection of the general attitude of Roh Moo-hyun’s administration toward the presidential race,” Eberstadt said. “There’s an awful lot of people in this (South Korean) government who can’t stand the Bush administration and would love to see Bush lose.”

South Korean officials said Yi and Chung had known each other for some time. Before moving to Los Angeles, Chung worked in South Korea’s consular offices in Atlanta, where Yi was working for a high-tech company.

Yi worked in White House
Yi had worked in the Clinton White House as a military attache, and eventually went into business in the Atlanta area with the son of disgraced former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. Yi began raising money for Kerry in 2003 and raised about $500,000 for Democratic causes.

Yi told the AP that he met with Chung at least three times in California to discuss starting a political action group for Korean-Americans. “He contacted me to ask me to help him set up a Korean-American Leadership Council,” Yi said, adding he turned down the offer because he was too busy.

Before the discussions with Chung in California, Yi had started a Korean-American political group in the Atlanta area called the Pacific Democratic Alliance, according to incorporation papers filed in March 2002 with the state of Georgia.

South Korean officials said Yi asked Chung to help introduce him to Korean-Americans in California as Yi began fund-raising in the state. Chung made some personal introductions but never directly solicited political donations, Ryu said.

Kee Whan Ha, president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles and a donor to both Kerry and Republican candidates, said it was common knowledge within the community that Chung worked for intelligence.

SO ARE YOU SAYING THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE ONLY ONES USING SPIES ? believe me, if they have them, the republicans have them, the republicans refuse to let the dems get one step ahead of them .......we need to understand that WE will never FULLY understand them depths of dirt that polititians carry.......dem or rep. dont make this one sided....we are in a war full of lies and deceit, and our people DYING daily ! you think the dems have the monopoly on dirt......think again. i just wish people would come clean with themselves.......we dont know shit ! they do ....we dont !

Originally posted by Travh20
hey, if you dont want to believe it so be it. I am just reporting what I saw in my local commie newspaper, who always endorse the democrats every election. they are no friends of the republicans or conservatives, so if they are reporting something like this I believe it. the CBS scandal hasnt even hit the paper here. hey, you posted it, what did you think people were gonna do...........reply, thats what. and thats why you posted it in the first place !

Originally posted by korg
SO ARE YOU SAYING THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE ONLY ONES USING SPIES ? believe me, if they have them, the republicans have them, the republicans refuse to let the dems get one step ahead of them ....... While i may agree with what you are saying, the fact is that you only have your opinion to go by about the Republican party, whereas Travh and Brooks have provided proof that the Democrats are doing it. Do you have any proof that the Republicans have a spy in their midst?

no......but the fact that you get my point is good enough. i dont profess to know about dems or republicans.....but i do know that politics is dirty from both ends , and its a " see if you can top this " entity they have craeted. so for me to sit here and think that only dems are doing it would, in my opinion, be a little naive......i know that the dems are dirty, because they are in politics. ....if pro is the opposite of con, whats the opposite of progress ?......but, havok, you are correct.....i have no proof

so much dirt is already on the democrats...if the american public knew everything about it they wouldn't even think about voting democrat this year.

I think we should be more upset with the South Koreans than with Kerry. Unless we want to require extensive background checks on everyone that donates?

Good point, Lionel, however, Kerry should burn for endorsing the crime.