Nation: Park Talks (a Little)

He calls his bribery "an American success story

His black shoes sparkled, his gold watch glittered. In the lapel of his crisp blue jacket a gold pin with five pearls gleamed. Under the hot glare of TV lights he kept dry and cool, sipping club soda. From behind the immaculate facade, however, came a sordid account of influence peddling. In two days of public hearings before the House ethics committee, Tongsun Park, the South Korean rice broker and Georgetown party host, provided the details of how he gave 31 past and present Congressmen, two congressional candidates and President Nixon's re-election committee upward of $850,000 in gifts and "campaign contributions." Indicted last September on 36 counts including mail fraud, failure to register as a foreign agent and bribery, Park testified with immunity from prosecution and claimed: "What I have done in Washington constitutes an American success story, on a small scale."

While Park added no major revelations to what has been disclosed over the past 18 months, his air of injured innocence, his flippant responses to questions revealed much about the man. Said committee Counsel Leon Jaworski, who was often irritated by Park's demeanor: "He treats this whole affair as just an ordinary sort of thing." Park practiced, according to a report he wrote on how to win support for Korea in Congress, "invitation diplomacy." He entertained Congressmen in his George Town Club; he arranged junkets for them and their wives to Seoul. "The past records indicate that the effectiveness of invitation diplomacy is nearly 100%," Park told the Korean government.

His biggest cash gifts were awarded to those former Congressmen who could best help his rice business. Louisiana's Otto Passman, who had not liked Park's arrangements for rice deals in his state, was pursued to Hong Kong in 1970 and given $5,000 "for his campaign." Passman, who was indicted last month for bribery and conspiracy, received another $274,000 from Park over the course of six years. Given the law barring campaign contributions from foreigners, Park also developed an interest in antique watches and jewelry, which Passman happened to collect. Park started buying Passman's trophies at 50% above the market value.

The most puzzling turn in the scandal concerned Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. Before Park's public testimony, the Justice Department released a document to the ethics committee that cast doubts on the Speaker's repeated assertions that he had nothing to do with Park other than being given two elaborate ($6,000 total) birthday parties at the George Town Club plus a set of golf clubs and some hurricane lamps. The paper, written in Korean and titled "U.S. Congressional Delegation's visit to Korea," was found in Park's house in Washington. The document discussed the trip that O'Neill, 19 other Congressmen and some of their wives took to Korea in 1974. It said: "Mr. O'Neill specifically requested us to provide those Congressmen with election campaign funds and their wives with necessary expenses."