hankyoreh

President Park Geun-hye apologizes for the Choi Sun-sil scandal at the Blue House press gallery in Seoul

President Park Geun-hye offered her second apology on Nov. 4 for the Choi Sun-sil scandal. Compared to her first address, which lasted a minute and 40 seconds and lacked anything resembling candor, this one did at least see her lowering her head a few times. But that’s not going to be enough to soothe the anger and despair the public is feeling. Park portrayed the whole thing as being about Choi’s own misdeeds, while giving no answer to demands that she herself step down as president. There was no sign of any resolution to take the responsibility onto her own shoulders. Park still seems utterly complacent in her expectation that this will be enough to settle the crisis.

Park also said she would “comply fully with questioning by prosecutors if necessary,” and would “even accept an investigation by a special prosecutor.” This is something she should have said a long time ago. Yet she hasn’t changed at all in presenting the scandal as a matter of one person’s corruption. She seems to believe that the Mir and K-Sports Foundations were established in the hopes of helping the national economy and the public’s lives, and that one individual exploited that process for her own interests and committed illegal acts. In other words, the President did everything with the best of intentions, and Choi Sun-sil secretly committed improprieties. Seeing the way the President is assigning all the blame to Choi is enough to make the public’s collective heart sink once again. At this point, there isn’t one South Korean who would be willing to take this explanation at face value.

What this scandal is about is a far-reaching interference in and monopoly of state affairs by Choi Sun-sil. The key questions are why Choi spearheaded the establishment and operation of the two foundations, and what the truth and explanation is for her apparent ability to drop by the Blue House at will to meddle with countless policy decisions and personnel appointments. On this score, the President didn’t offer a word of explanation to the public, simply saying she could “not give specific details because the prosecutors’ investigation is ongoing.” It’s exasperating for the South Korean public to see the president ruling the whole matter to be about Choi’s personal corruption, while using the upcoming prosecutors’ questioning as an excuse not to address the key allegations. When the president defers to the behind-closed-doors questioning by prosecutors instead of trying to persuade the people, we have to wonder just whose president she really is. It’s hard to shake the feeling she wants to avoid candor at all costs, using excuses and cheap tactics to wriggle out of her crisis.

A Gallup Korea opinion poll has Park’s approval rating all the way down to 5%. That’s even lower than the 6% then-President Kim Young-sam faced in 1997 just after the sovereign default of the IMF financial crisis. It means the people of South Korea see the current situation as even more dangerous than when South Korea was depending on relief loans. Instead of relinquishing power, Park is fighting to stay at the helm of the ship of state. Evidence for that is her refusal to comment at all on what to do about Prime Minister nominee Kim Byong-joon. Instead, a Blue House source said Park’s address sent the message that “the Prime Minister should take the lead in governance and draw strength in his duties.” The President did broach the possibility of meeting with the ruling and opposition party leaders, but if she continues insisting on dragging her feet and having things her way, she’s only going to bring about a bigger crisis. If she really wanted to put the crisis behind her, she should have withdrawn her unilateral nomination of Kim.

The public’s patience is limited. President Park cannot keep trying to escape her crisis with untimely measures that lack substance. She needs to give serious thought to what it means to have the worst approval rating in history. Unless she steps back from power at once and offers the public a frank confession of her full relationship with Choi Sun-sil, Park has no political future.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]