By Caroline Gluck BBC Seoul correspondent

A second son of South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, has appeared before prosecutors over allegations of involvement in an influence-peddling scandal.

Kim Hong-up appeared for questioning at the supreme prosecutor's office which was packed with reporters.

President Kim's younger son is already in jail

The 52-year-old, a former head of the non-profit making organisation the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation, denies any link with alleged money-laundering.

Earlier this month, another of the president's sons, his youngest, Kim Hong-gul, was charged with influence-peddling and tax evasion.

He is in jail awaiting trial.

The scandals are being blamed as a major factor for the governing Millennium Democratic Party's crushing defeat in local elections last week.

President Kim is constitutionally barred from standing for a second term in December's presidential elections.

But his party's presidential candidate, Roh Moo-hyun, will have to work harder to distance himself from the president and his entourage if he is to have a fighting chance of victory.

President Kim, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has not personally been accused of any wrongdoing in any of the cases, but the investigation has dented his image.