hankyoreh

Park Geun-hye and Jeon Yeo-ok in 2004

“Worse than nonsense,” said former Hannara Party lawmaker Jeon Yeo-ok of claims by members of the pro-Park wing in the ruling Saenuri Party (the Hannara Party‘s current incarnation) that they were unaware of government interference by power broker Choi Sun-sil.

“I saw governance going this kind of bizarre way from all the zombies surrounding the Chung Yoon-hoi and Choi Sun-sil couple in the past,” she added.

Speaking in an interview on Nov. 1 for the SBS show “Park Jin-ho’s Current Events Observation Deck,” Jeon said she didn‘t think it was Choi Sun-sil who was Park Geun-hye’s closest confidante at the time.

“Her husband Chung Yoon-hoi was the one taking care of things with the media and policies. Choi Sun-sil tended to the daily essentials for Park Geun-hye, who dresses simply. That‘s what I thought it was,” she explained.

“In any case, I figured that if [Park] became President, the two of them would be dominating the government,” she added.

“There were a lot of really odd people in their circle who went back and forth to Yeouido [the neighborhood in Seoul where the National Assembly is located] without ever greeting anyone,” Jeon said.

“President Park’s so-called ‘doorknob triumvirate’ didn‘t deal with anyone either, and there was talk among the aides that they were something along the lines of National Assembly aides,” she added. “I saw that, and I knew things were going to go in a really odd direction in terms of governance.”

Jeon also shared a story about a “trembling” Park - then leader of the Hannara Party - calling someone for advice in 2006 when the opposition Uri Party attempted to force a National Assembly vote on the relocation of South Korea’s administrative capital from Seoul to Sejong (Jeon was Hannara spokesperson at the time).

“The capital relocation vote was a very urgent, very serious situation, and [Park] was just trembling,” said Jeon, who was a party spokesperson at the time.

“I got so frustrated that I said, ‘Why don’t you just call [the person you usually do]?” she recalled. “No sooner did I finish speaking than she went to her corner and called. I saw that, and my heart just sank.”

Jeon also said other lawmakers with the Hannara Party “probably all had the same experience.”

Jeon went on to say members of the Park wing in parliamentary “all knew” about Park’s character.

“In that case, it’s a basic duty to report that to the public,” she said.

“The very fact that there was a party, the Pro-Park Alliance, that used the name of this politician Park Geun-hye was a case of political heresy. It‘s pseudo-politics,” Jeon continued.

“For people experienced in politics, it was mortifying to have politicians presenting themselves as ’able to detect who is truly pro-Park,‘” she added.

By Kim Tae-gyu, staff reporter

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