China steps up probe into local officials' gambling in N. Korea

Asian Economic News, Dec 29, 2004

BEIJING, Dec. 23 Kyodo

Chinese disciplinary authorities looking for a local official suspected of gambling away millions in public funds in a North Korean casino have grilled other officials on whether they also have visited the same luxury gaming parlor, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.

And already, they have found that government paid little attention to gambling junkets, Xinhua said.

In their search for escaped Transportation Management Bureau Chief Cai Haowen, believed to have gambled, and apparently lost, more than 3 million yuan ($362,000) in public funds earlier this year, the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission asked Cai's fellow officials from the Yanbian Ethnic Korean State in Jilin Province about their gambling activities as well.

''Since Cai Haowen's escape, many cadres in communications management have been asked, and, other than their understanding about Cai Haowen's situation, the major question is, 'have you gone to the (casino) to gamble?','' Xinhua reported.

The news agency did not outline what answers people had given, but it said government departments in Yanbian ''had not paid attention'' to Communist Party members crossing the border into North Korea to gamble.

The Emperor Entertainment Center, the casino where Cai allegedly gambled with public money for personal gain, serves almost exclusively Chinese people, Xinhua said.

It said about 50,000 Chinese crossed the border in 2004 to visit the seaside island casino in Rason City.

The casino's name does not appear in travel directories geared toward Western tourists, but some travel guides indicate non-Chinese foreigners are allowed to gamble at a resort in Pyongyang.

But a manager with a Chinese-North Korean business association in Beijing declined to discuss the casino.

Cai, 41, disappeared Nov. 17 after realizing that his activities had been discovered, Xinhua said. He is accused of making more than 15 trips to the casino since January.

Investigators in Yanbian have found that because of his work, Cai remained ''distant'' from this co-workers.