AN unfolding arms bribery scandal in South Korea has taken so many turns and generated so many revelations that it rivals the country's ever-popular soap operas for sheer intrigue.

This was reported that a Canadian executive in a high-tech firm, MacDonald Dettwiler Associates, will be called to offer video-taped testimony in February in Vancouver, British Columbia, over allegations that a former California model and "weapons system broker" slept with South Korea's defence minister to defeat a Canadian firm's bid for a military contract. He will offer his testimony to representatives of Korea Supply Co, which is suing US arms producer Lockheed Martin.

According to The Korea Times, the police have arrested the heads of two organisations affiliated with the Ministry of Defence for allegedly receiving bribes from an arms supplier. The National Police Agency said it obtained evidence that Agency for Defence Development (ADD) president Park Yong-deuk, and Korea Institute for Defence Analyses (KIDA) president Hwang Dong-joon, received bribes from an arms maker and arrested them without warrants. The KIDA and ADD are both funded by the government and are regarded as among the very highest-profile think tanks in South Korea.

Park, a retired three-star General, is suspected of having received 20 million won (about US$16,700) from someone identified only by his surname Choi, the chief executive officer of an underwater-weapons supplier identified only as "M", prior to the selection process for choosing the preferred bidder to develop a military satellite communication system in August and November last year, police said. Hwang, meanwhile, is accused of pocketing 10 million won from Choi before an open bid for a war-game-simulator development project in August 2002.

But M is hardly the only South Korean arms contractor to be accused of bribery.

On December 16, police issued a summons for Representative Chun Yong-taek of the pro-government Uri Party for questioning over allegations that he received tens of millions of won from an arms supplier while he was serving as the Defence Minister under President Kim Dae-jung. He was also chairman of the Parliamentary Defence Committee in 2000.

Chun is suspected of receiving money from Chong Ho-young, head of a military telecommunication technology firm, and of receiving kickbacks from other defence contractors and National Defence Ministry officials in exchange for favours in construction and supplies contracts and the promotion of National Defence officials. Chong is suspected of offering kickbacks to retired General Lee Won-hyong, the former chief of the Defenve Quality Assurance Agency (DQAA). Chong reportedly gave a total of 131 million won to Lee on 23 different occasions from 1998 to last year. Chong is also reported to have offered bribes to two or three former and current Generals to gain favorable treatment in lucrative defence projects. So far the police have refused to release the names and rankings of the Generals involved.

Meanwhile, the mysterious and apparently very busy Choi was also arrested on suspicions that he offered 12 million won in bribes to Lee on four different occasions from March to October last year in exchange for favours in multibillion-won defence projects.