The South Korean government Wednesday apologized for the prosecution of President Kim Dae-jung's second son Kim Hong-up, the national news agency Yonhap News reported.

"We are overcome with a sense of guilt," said the government spokeswoman Park Sun-sook after a senior presidential secretaries' meeting.

"All matters relative to the case will be dealt with strictly according to law. The president and the secretariat will dedicate themselves fully to executing state affairs," she was quoted by the report as saying.

In the same time, in response to the prosecution, the South Korean biggest rival party Grand National Party (GNP) Wednesday demanded further investigation into the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.

"Since Kim Hong-up was in charge of the financial matters of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation, he should confess all irregularities involving the president's relatives and aides," said Lee Jong-koo, an aide to GNP presidential nominee Lee Hoi-chang

In addition, some former and incumbent heads of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) were found to have given Kim Hong-up a total of 35 million won (28,000 US dollars) as "pocket money" in the last four years, the investigators at the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office (SPPO) said Wednesday.

President Kim's second son, Kim Hong-up, was indicted for taking briberies from various corporations, including affiliates of Samsung and Hyundai business conglomerates, and for not reporting to tax authorities the money he received from various sources.