hankyoreh

Lee Jae-oh

By Ahn Chang-hyun, Staff Writer

With a year left in his term, President Lee Myung-bak is now finding himself forced to watch the fall of such "meritorious retainers" as National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae.

Speaking Friday on a recent string of improprieties by presidential associates, a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said, "It's difficult to get things together at the moment. Half the 'six-man council' is now in danger."

By "six-man council," the official was referring to the top decision-making body in Lee's camp during the 2007 presidential election. In addition to Lee and Park, it consisted of National Assembly lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk, Korea Communications Commission chairman Choi See-joong, lawmaker Lee Jae-oh, and former special aide Kim Deok-ryong. In addition to the leading role they played in bringing Lee into office, they were generally regarded as some of the most powerful figures in the administration.

Park, a six-term lawmaker who served as chairman of the Grand National Party and Speaker of the National Assembly, ran into a crisis with allegations about the distribution of money at a party convention. He is now being investigated by prosecutors for allegedly distributing envelopes containing money during the 2008 GNP convention, where he was victorious thanks to support from the party's Lee Myung-bak wing. Even observers within the party are now demanding that he step down as Speaker.

Lee Sang-deuk, the President's older brother who has been referred to by many as the "second king" and "prince of Pohang," suffered a devastating blow with an incident involving his aide Park Bae-su, 47, who is currently under indictment and detention. The situation forced Lee to abandon plans to run for the position of speaker in this year's general election and declare his non-candidacy. And with the discovery of large sums of uncertain provenance in the accounts of aides, he may well find himself walking through camera flashes at the prosecutors' office. The situation stands a strong chance of going down as the administration's biggest scandal, much like the arrest of Kim Hyun-chul during the administration of his father, former President Kim Young-sam.

Choi, the President's mentor and "associate of all associates," is also facing his own crisis. Like Lee, Choi hails from Pohang, North Gyeongsang province. The two were close in their college days, and Choi was a university classmate of Lee Sang-deuk. As chairman of the KCC, he has reigned as president of media and communications.

But Choi, too, ended up as the subject of an investigation by prosecutors in connection with allegations of hundreds of millions of won in illicit money received by Jeong Yong-uk, 49, who has been referred to as his "adoptee." Many observers in the political community are questioning whether the money given to Jeong was not passed along with Choi in mind. Jeong is currently overseas.

Lee Jae-oh, seen by many as the administration's "second-in-command," has nearly lost his political voice since the GNP went under emergency rule administered by Park Geun-hye. He is outside the scope of the prosecutors' investigation, since he was in the US at the time of the 2008 GNP convention. But a number of observers are expressing skepticism, noting that his right-hand man, Eunpyeong-A party regional council head Ahn Byeong-yong, is being investigated by prosecutors.

At the moment, Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation chairman Kim Deok-ryong is the only member of the six-man council who has been left unscathed. He has been consistently considered a strong contender for Prime Minister, but seen little in the way of benefits.

The Cheong Wa Dae is now watching to see how the prosecutors' investigations unfold. An official there said, "If the investigations substantiate the allegations, each of them has the potential to be explosive."

"How did we end up in the position where we can only watch and see how the prosecutors' investigation goes?" the official asked.

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