When a worker sweeping the garden of Hyundai Group headquarters found Chung Mong Hun's body on an early August morning, he could not believe he had come upon the corpse of one of the nation's most influential tycoons. But for Hyundai Group chief Chung, 54, who had leaped from his office window, death was the only escape from a huge scandal involving $500 million in payments that Hyundai funneled to Pyongyang in exchange for Kim Jong Il's participation in a summit with then-President Kim Dae Jung. Chung admitted in court to violating foreign exchange laws in sending the money to North Korea and using false accounting to cover things up. Ex-President Kim Dae Jung, meanwhile, denies any wrongdoing.
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