Pressure continued to mount on President Park Geun-hye on Friday, as the scandal involving her confidante accused of meddling in key state affairs dented public trust in her management of state affairs.
Park canceled a luncheon with members of a committee on the reunification of the peninsula and instead met with Rep. Lee Jung-hyun, the chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, to discuss her course of action. Yet no words came from Cheong Wa Dae as of Friday evening as to what she will do to settle the unrest. The Blue House, earlier in the day, said the president was “contemplating” options, which includes the overhaul of Cabinet members and presidential aides.
Pressing Park to promptly conduct the personnel reshuffle, the Saenuri leadership on early Friday threatened to resign en masse.
The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea pledged to suspend bipartisan efforts to investigate the scandal unless the president first conducted an overhaul and took responsibility for causing public uproar through her relationship with her confidante Choi Soon-sil.
President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)
Among others, it insisted on the replacement of the Senior Secretary for Policy Coordination Ahn Jong-bum and Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo, both of whom were embroiled in the scandal but have vowed to keep their positions. Sources expect the reshuffle to take place next week.
As for the calls for Park to relinquish much of her power to a “bipartisan government” including a new prime minister, the presidential office appeared to be against the idea.
“Despite the shock from the scandal, the president maintains a steadfast commitment to running the country,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
The unravelling scandal erupted Monday when cable TV channel JTBC reported to have found over 200 confidential presidential files on a trashed computer purportedly used by Choi. It revealed that Choi edited Park‘s speeches and had access to other documents, some containing sensitive issues such as inter-Korean relations.
A survey from Gallup Korea released Friday shows Park’s daily approval rating was down to 14 percent on Thursday, the lowest since her inauguration in February 2013. A large-scale anti-Park rally is scheduled to be held in Seoul on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Jo In-geun, a former speechwriter for Park, came forward to the media Friday, after days in hiding since the scandal first broke. He denied the initial revelation that Choi Soon-sil edited the president’s speeches. The presidential aide has been suspected of leaking the confidential document when he was in charge of speech writing between 2012 and 2014.
Jo In-geun, President Park Geun-hye’s former speechwriter, is surrounded by journalists in front of his office in Yeouido, Seoul, Friday. (Yonhap)
“It never came across to me that someone may have edited the speeches without my knowledge,” the former secretary said. He worked at Cheong Wa Dae until July this year. “I don’t even know who Choi is until I saw the news report.”
The initial TV report suggested that the speech scripts were appeared to have been edited by Choi up to three days ahead of its delivery by the president.
The scandal also shifted the fortunes of political parties.
Minjoo saw its poll number outpace that of Saenuri for the first time under the Park administration. Minjoo‘s approval rating stood at 29 percent, while Saenuri was at 26.
The main opposition bloc accused Saenuri of failing to recognize its own responsibility for the scandal. It denounced the ruling party for defending the president and dismissing the infamous scandal as a political attack fabricated by the opposition bloc.
Minjoo Chair Rep. Choo Mi-ae said Friday that until Saenuri apologized for their acts leading up the revelation of the scandal, her party would halt negotiations with Saenuri over the operation of an independent counsel to investigate the case.
Alongside the apology, Minjoo also attached another two conditions to their return to the negotiation table: Dismissal of Woo Byung-woo, the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs who was embroiled in the scandal, and resignation of all the officials “having worked for Choi Soon-sil.”
The announcement came amid partisan bickering over the procedure to appoint the independent counsel. Fearing that the current law would undermine the prosecutor’s independence, Minjoo asserted that the lawmakers should pass a new law that prevents special prosecutors from being appointed by the president.
“People are outraged at Saenuri for coming to the table without any apology and trying to have the president appoint the prosecutor that would investigate herself,” said Choo, adding that the president herself should undergo investigation. “It is a farce.”
Though Saenuri leadership refused to budge, dissenting calls emerged from Saenuri members outside the faction close to President Park. They said that the leadership should shift their position and embrace Minjoo’s proposal to pass a new law to name an independent counsel.
“When we decided to adopt the independent counsel, we wanted to end the crisis as soon as possible. In that regard, it is not a bad idea to accept (Minjoo’s) proposal,” said Rep. Choung Byoung-gug in an interview with local media.
By Yeo Jun-suk (
jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)
