South Korea’s Ex-President Chun Linked to Slush Fund : Probe: Prosecutors announce where onetime general, already under indictment, kept much of money. Meanwhile, he ends hunger strike.

SEOUL —  Key evidence has been discovered indicating that former President Chun Doo Hwan acquired a huge slush fund while in office and kept much of the money after his 1980-88 term ended, authorities said Saturday.

The newly discovered funds were kept in an account at Korea Investment Trust Co., prosecutors said. Investigators had previously said they were making progress in gathering evidence of a suspected Chun slush fund, but Saturday’s announcement marked the first citation of a specific place where the money was kept.

Chun, 64, a former general, is already in police custody on charges stemming from a 1979 mutiny. Saturday’s announcement increased the likelihood that he will also face indictment soon on corruption charges. South Korean media reported that Chun is likely to be accused of accumulating $390 million to $520 million while in office.

Meanwhile, Chun formally ended a hunger strike that he launched upon his imprisonment Dec. 3. He had refused solid food and subsisted mainly on barley tea since his arrest, and he was taken to a police hospital on Dec. 21 as his health worsened. In recent days he had accepted more nutritious drinks, and on Friday he accepted intravenous nutrients and the use of an oxygen mask.

Chun’s lawyer, Lee Yang Woo, released a statement Saturday affirming that Chun had ended his fast on the advice of his family and doctors. Lee said the former president staged the hunger strike to express his determination to defend the legitimacy of his administration.

South Korea’s leaders, however, pressed forward rapidly with political as well as legal steps to undermine that quickly fading legitimacy.

Recently appointed Prime Minister Lee Soo Sung paid a formal visit Saturday to a cemetery honoring victims of a May 1980 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in the southwestern city of Kwangju. That civilian uprising came in response to Chun’s imposition of nationwide martial law on May 17, 1980.

The brutal crackdown that ended the revolt consolidated Chun’s hold on power at the cost of at least 240 lives. Some Kwangju residents believe about 1,000 people died in the clash.

Lee’s visit to the Kwangju martyrs’ cemetery was the first by a South Korean prime minister or president since the 1980 massacre.

“I came here not for political purposes but from my heartfelt intention to pay my respects to the victims,” Lee said. He was shown on nationwide television lighting incense to honor the spirits of those who died in the struggle for democracy.

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Prosecutors, meanwhile, summoned four former military officers and a former Chun press secretary for questioning Saturday about the events of May 1980.

The investigation into Chun’s alleged slush fund also continued. Chun Jae Kook, a son of the former president, and the son’s mother-in-law, Kim Kyong Ja, were questioned about the fund Saturday. Yoon Kwang Soon, the former president of Korea Investment Trust Co., had already been questioned, Korean media reported. Yoon is related to Chun by marriage.

Investigators have learned that until October, Chun controlled $133 million in a Korea Investment Trust account, Yonhap news agency reported.

The current location of the money was not immediately made public, but KBS Television reported that prosecutors had applied for a warrant to seize the funds.

Chun’s successor in office, former President Roh Tae Woo, confessed in October to having accumulated a $653-million slush fund during his term. Roh was arrested in November and remains in prison on bribery charges in connection with the slush fund and on insurrection charges for assisting Chun in the 1979 mutiny.