WASHINGTON – The State Department has warned South Korea to avoid interfering in the American presidential race and has urged Roh Moohyun’s administration to observe all American laws barring foreigners from contributing to political campaigns.

Seoul has been advised also to comply with international treaties prohibiting diplomats from meddling in internal politics.

The warning came in the wake of allegations this week that a South Korean intelligence official assisted a senior Kerry campaign fundraiser to raise money in California from Asian-Americans. Chung Byung-Man, the intelligence operative, was ostensibly the vice-consul in Los Angeles and was recalled to Seoul in the spring.

“We are ensuring that the Korean government is aware of all the relevant U.S. laws and international agreements,” said the State Department in a statement issued to The New York Sun.

A State Department official said she could not comment any further on the diplomatic exchanges involved between Seoul and Washington. The Justice Department declined to comment on whether any investigation was being mounted into the activities of Mr. Chung.

On Tuesday, public integrity watchdogs called for a federal probe into the involvement of Mr. Chung in the Kerry campaign, arguing that his pairing up with Rick Yi, a onetime vice-chairman for fundraising in the Kerry campaign, was a cause for alarm and at the very least needed to be investigated.

Mr. Yi, who resigned from the campaign in May after the Kerry campaign had to return two checks for $2,000 each to non-American citizens, raised $500,000 for Mr. Kerry. Mr. Yi, an Atlanta-based businessmen and retired American army major, who served in the 1990s in the Clinton White House as a military attache, did not return calls for comment.

“Of course, it is always possible that Chung was a loose cannon and his fundraising and political activities were not coordinated by Seoul,” says Nicholas Eberstadt, a Korea scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But if this wasn’t a rogue action, then one would have to conclude that Seoul might have been trying to influence the outcome of the 2004 elections. Certainly the Roh Moohyun government is packed with people who would like to see Bush lose.”

Among the international agreements the State Department is likely reminding Seoul about is the 1963 Vienna Convention that prohibits visiting foreign officials from interfering in the internal politics of host countries.

In the 1970s,South Korea was caught interfering in American politics when Seoul was discovered using cash payments to try to influence the White House and Congress. Korean businessman Tongsun Park testified before Congress that he and the Korean intelligence service delivered at least $850,000 to more than 30 congressmen. Most of the cash was stuffed into envelopes.

Despite investigations by the Justice Department and two committees of Congress, only one person ever went to prison for Korea gate – a former congressman from California who served a one-year prison sentence.

Korean-Americans in Los Angeles said that Mr. Chung helped effect introductions for Mr. Yi. David K. Lee, an attorney, told the Sun: “I was surprised by Mr. Chung’s involvement.”