South Korean ex-president Lee queried over corruption

SeOuL: Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak (pic) was questioned over corruption, the last of the country’s living ex-leaders to be embroiled in a criminal inquiry.

Allegations of graft involving the conservative 76-year-old’s relatives and aides during his term have mounted in recent weeks as prosecutors investigate multiple cases of bribery amounting to millions of dollars.

The probe means that all four living former South Korean presidents have been convicted, charged, or investigated for criminal offences.

“I stand here with a heavy heart,” Lee said as he arrived at the prosecutors’ office in Seoul, after a car journey from his home in the capital covered live on television.

“I’m very sorry for causing concern to the people,” he told reporters, adding that South Koreans’ livelihoods were “difficult” and the security situation on the Korean peninsula was “dire”.

Lee, who was president from 2008 to 2013, has previously denounced the inquiry as “political revenge” and said yesterday he hoped it would be the “last time in history” that a former South Korean head of state was summoned for questioning by prosecutors.

South Korean presidents have a tendency to end up in prison – or meet untimely ends – after their time in power, usually once their political rivals have moved into the presidential Blue House.

Conservative Park Geun-hye was ousted last year over a massive corruption scandal that emerged in 2016, and the verdict in her bribery and abuse of power trial is due next month, with prosecutors demanding 30 years in jail.