S. Korean president orders senior secretaries to resign
seoul — South Korean President Park Geun-hye has ordered 10 of her senior secretaries to resign amid an investigation that she let an old friend, the daughter of a religious cult leader, interfere in important state affairs.
The announcement by Park’s office came before thousands turned out in anti-government protests in Seoul on Saturday over the scandal that is likely to deepen the president’s lame duck status ahead of next year’s elections.
Park has been facing calls to reshuffle her office after she admitted on Tuesday that she provided longtime friend Choi Soon-sil drafts of her speeches for editing. Her televised apology sparked huge criticism about her mismanagement of national information and heavyhanded leadership style many see as lacking in transparency.
There’s also media speculation that Choi, who holds no government job, meddled in government decisions on personnel and policy and exploited her ties with the president to misappropriate funds from nonprofit organisations.
Prosecutors on Saturday widened their investigation by searching the homes and offices of presidential officials suspected of interacting with Choi, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said. Park’s office, however, denied that prosecutors searched the Blue House — the presidential office and residence.
Prosecutors had previously summoned some of Choi’s key associates and raided their homes and workplaces and also the offices of two nonprofit foundations Choi supposedly controlled.
The saga has sent Park’s approval ratings to record lows. The Minjoo Party, a larger opposition party which has refrained from calling for Park’s resignation over fears of negatively affecting next year’s presidential vote, said Park’s decision to shake up her secretariat was too little and too late and called for stronger changes, including the reshuffling of her cabinet.
Park’s aides on the way out include Woo Byung-woo, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, and Ahn Jong-beom, senior secretary for policy coordination. Lee Won-jong, Park’s chief of staff, tendered his resignation on Wednesday.
Woo has been blamed for failing to prevent Choi from influencing state affairs and has also been embroiled in separate corruption allegations surrounding his family. — AP