WASHINGTON – Senator Clinton’s likely Republican opponent in 2006 and a South Korean newspaper are raising questions about campaign donations the New York Democrat has received from a New York businessman who is involved in an organization that sets up cultural events in North Korea.

The organization was founded by a man who later resigned as South Korea’s ambassador to America after allegations emerged that he helped establish a “slush fund” for South Korean politicians.

“Once again serious questions surround Senator Clinton’s fund-raising operation,” the Republican challenger in Mrs. Clinton’s Senate re-election bid, a former mayor of Yonkers, John Spencer, said about the donations. “We know that federal charges were levied against her fund-raisers from her last campaign and that she has taken money linked to supporters of Iranian mullahs. Now another issue pops up. Senator Clinton needs to come clean and answer these latest questions.”

A request for comment from Mrs. Clinton’s Senate office was referred to her campaign spokesman, Sam Arora, who did not return repeated phone call and e-mail requests for comment Monday, Tuesday, and yesterday.

The contributions in question come from a New York-based real estate investor, Hyung Young “Daniel” Lee. According to records on file with the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Lee, 44, donated $4,100 to Mrs. Clinton’s 2006 Senate re-election campaign through Friends of Hillary in May 2005. His wife, Eva, donated $5,100 in four separate contributions between August 2004 and May 2005. FEC documents show that the Clinton campaign refunded Mrs. Lee $1,000; FEC regulations cap donations to a candidate at $4,200 for an individual contributor during an election cycle.

According to a fund-raising invitation obtained by The New York Sun, Mr. and Mrs. Lee also hosted a “Korean Americans for Hillary” fund-raiser at their home in Great Neck on May 22, 2005. One of the organizers of Lees’ event and a Queens-based businessman, John Park, said earlier this week that “around 60 or 70 people” attended the $1,000-a-head fund-raiser, including Mrs. Clinton.

Reached by cell phone earlier this week, Mr. Lee dismissed concerns about the contributions as “nonsense.”

In the FEC filing for Mr. Lee’s donation to Mrs. Clinton, the Korean-American businessman provides Great Neck as his location, and “Sun Power Development Corp.” as his occupational affiliation.

In donations to other candidates – including the re-election campaigns of two Democratic New York congressmen, Joseph Crowley, of the Bronx, and Gary Ackerman, of Queens, and the presidential campaign of Senator Kerry, a Democrat of Massachusetts – Mr. Lee lists his address as Flushing and affiliates himself with the “Speed Investment Corporation,” with the “Open Center” as an “investor”; with the “World Culture Open Organizing Committee,” and with the “World Culture Open” as an “investor.”

World Culture Open describes itself on its Web site as “an international nonprofit organization harnessing world’s cultural legacies for advancing the wellbeing of humanity and the betterment of the world” that “aims to celebrate diversity of culture and mobilize cultural resources for the common good, holistic wellbeing, and harmonious coexistence between and among diverse cultures.” The World Culture Open Incorporated is registered in New York State as a “foreign not-for-profit corporation.”

Among WCO’s efforts at “harmonious coexistence” were planned cultural-exchange festivals in Pyongyang, North Korea, according to archived pages on the organization’s Web site.

The WCO Web site also lists as one of its affiliated endeavors the “Open Center” project. According to registration documents on file with New York’s Department of State, Mr. Lee is listed as the chairman or chief executive officer of Open Center International Incorporated, which is registered as a domestic business organization.

Mr. Lee’s documented affiliation with the Open Center and the World Culture Open has led the Korean press to raise flags about his possible connections to the South Korean “slush fund” scandal and one of its most visible alleged participants.

One of the group’s founders and its former chairman is the former president and CEO of the South Korean Joong-ang Ilbo newspaper group and former president of the World Newspaper Association, Hong Seok Hyun.

In July 2005, Mr. Hong stepped down as South Korea’s ambassador to Washington after four months on the job when a TV news channel in Seoul reported that a South Korean spy agency had secretly recorded Mr. Hong conversing with a high-ranking official at the Samsung Group, Lee Hak Soo. In the wiretapped conversation, according to a Washington Post report and other press accounts, Mr. Hong allegedly agreed to establish a “slush fund” for candidates in South Korea’s 1997 presidential race. In 1999, according to the Washington Post, Mr. Hong was arrested on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement and punished with a $3.2 million fine.

The former ambassador appeared before a South Korean court to address the “slush fund” allegations in November, and the case is still pending. Meanwhile, however, questions are emerging about possible ties between Mr. Hong’s allegedly criminal activity, Mr. Lee’s contributions to Mrs. Clinton, and their shared affiliations at the WCO.

A series of articles in the Korean language, Seoul-based Korea Times first documented the connections between Messrs. Lee, Hong, and the WCO and its affiliated groups. In translated articles made available by the Times to the Sun, the Korean paper raises questions about the legality of the Lee donations to Mrs. Clinton because of Mr. Lee’s WCO affiliation, and expresses concern about the donations’ possible ties to the South Korean “slush fund” imbroglio and a separate Korean money-laundering scandal.

Mr. Lee is an American citizen, but the World Culture Open is a registered foreign corporation. FEC rules prohibit campaign donations from foreign nationals or entities, and also prohibit foreign nationals or entities from contributing indirectly through a third party, an FEC spokesman, George Smaragdis, said.

Mr. Lee dismissed reports of possible ties to the “slush fund” as “rumor.” Asked about any connections to Mr. Hong, Mr. Lee responded, “I don’t know him that much.”

“I’m an ordinary businessman sup porting my community,” Mr. Lee said. “I help a hundred different organizations. World Culture Open is one of them. Senator Clinton is one of them,” he added. The businessman also said that despite the FEC filings, he was not an “investor” in the WCO or any related groups, but rather a “volunteer” or “temporary adviser,” adding: “Sometimes, my associates will not pay attention to fill out those things.”

According to an invitation provided to the Sun, the “Korean Americans for Hillary” will be holding another fundraiser on March 24, joined by the “Chinese Americans for Hillary” and City Council Member John Liu, Democrat of Flushing. The event will be held at the Dae Dong Manor at 150-24 Northern Boulevard in Flushing – a building purchased in the fall by Mr. Lee, according to deed transfer documents.