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PYEONGTAEK, South Korea — The company that handled customer service for LG Dacom’s U.S. military Internet customers in South Korea has been replaced by CIC Korea, an LG Dacom official said Wednesday.

The disclosure comes after several weeks of confusion and rumor over which company was replacing Concordia Co. Ltd.

LG Dacom provides residential Internet, phone and cell phone service to U.S. military communities in South Korea under its contract with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. CIC will handle various customer service-related functions.

AAFES moved recently to drop Concordia because the firm has ties to a businessman convicted in South Korean court earlier this year on charges of bribing AAFES officials.

The businessman, Jeong Gi-hwan, is chief executive of Internet firm SSRT, which previously held the contract LG Dacom now has. But Jeong also is listed on South Korean corporate registration documents as a Concordia director, AAFES has said.

Shortly after taking over the SSRT contract, LG Dacom brought in Concordia.

According to AAFES officials, they learned of Concordia’s tie to Jeong in September.

Jeong is in custody in Texas pending court action on federal bribery conspiracy charges stemming from the SSRT-AAFES contract. His lawyer is contesting the allegations.

Rumors began circulating this fall that AAFES was moving to quietly drop Concordia. A series of unexplained mix-ups followed, in which AAFES said NEO Communication Co. Ltd. had begun work as the replacement firm but later acknowledged that NEO had been dropped by LG Dacom. AAFES would not disclose whether it knew why NEO had been dropped.

CIC Korea began handling the customer service functions on Dec. 7, LG Dacom official Jeff Won said.

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