hankyoreh

right.

By Kim Jong-cheol, Political Correspondent

National Assembly speaker Park Hee-tae has stepped down due to the infamous bribery scandal at the Grand National Party (former Saenuri Party)’s convention. This latest resignation shows the irreversible extent of the scandal’s damage to the ruling camp.

“I apologize to the Korean people,” Park said in a resignation statement delivered by National Assembly spokesman Han Jong-tae on Thursday. “I feel a great sense of responsibility for the problems linked to me and intend to resign as speaker.”

Since Saenuri Party lawmaker Koh Seung-duk revealed in early January that he had received an envelope containing three million won ($2600) in cash from Park Hee-tae’s team when Park was running for the party leadership, Park had been under constant pressure to resign but until now refused to do so, saying that the affair had nothing to do with him and that his memories of it were unclear. Until recently, he was reportedly fixed upon continuing in his position as speaker until the May 29 end of his term. He was also considering a planned overseas tour.

Park’s resignation came after “Go,” his former secretary changed his initial claim that he had spent the money returned by Ko Seung-duk himself, and testified to prosecutors that he had made a direct report to current senior presidential secretary for political affairs Kim Hyo-jae, who was managing Park’s election campaign at the time. It appears that, when things reached a stage where Kim faced inevitable questioning by prosecutors and he himself risked being incriminated, Park decided he could hold out no longer.

Park apparently is hoping the affair will go away now that he has resigned and taken political responsibility. However, if it is confirmed that Kim Hyo-jae, his former election campaign manager, had a part in the bribery incident, an investigation into whether Park received reports about the money being circulated, and into where the money came from, will likely take place. It is possible that Park will be summoned by prosecutors.

Park has played the resignation card, but the reaction in political circles, including Saenuri Party, has been frosty. “It does feel late, but I think it’s good that he made a decision amid his anguish,” stated Saenuri Party emergency measures committee chairwoman Park Geun-hye. One Saenuri Party lawmaker said, “He should have stepped down sooner. Even when he did resign, it was cowardly of him to get a spokesman to read his resignation statement instead of doing it himself.”

Park is the fourth National Assembly speaker to step down before completing his term, following Rhee Syngman, Lee Gi-bong and Park Jun-gyu, and the first to resign due to a corruption scandal.

Park, a former prosecutor who began his political career upon joining the Democratic Justice Party in 1988, has held every key position in his more than 20 year career, including longest-serving spokesman, justice minister and ruling party leader. When serving as spokesman for the DJP and the Democratic Liberal Party, in particular, he used his quick thinking and wit to create popular phrases such as, “political 9th grade” and “if I do it, it’s romance; if you do it, it’s adultery.”

Park faced many ups and downs as he earned glory, however. He was appointed as the first justice minister in the Kim Young-sam government in 1993, but had to resign after just 10 days following incidents such as the granting of special favors to get his daughter, who had US nationality, into university. He also experienced the pain of missing out on nomination as a candidate for the 2008 general election. In August of the same year he returned to his position as party leader; the next year, he ran in a by-election in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province and became National Assembly speaker in the second half of the year.

Kim, meanwhile, “dug in,” cutting himself off from the media. His only statement to the outside, made through Cheong Wa Dae (South Korea’s presidential office or Blue House) spokesperson Park Jeong-ha, was that he had no intention to resign for the time being. Figures both in and outside Cheong Wa Dae, however, take the view the Kim will not be able to weather the storm indefinitely.

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