Rep. Park Geun-hye, upon taking office Monday as chief of the Grand National Party, apologized to the public for “disappointments” from the ruling party and vowed all out efforts to regain their trust.

“The GNP, despite being the governing party, has failed to look after the livelihood of the people and see their pain. I sincerely apologize for that,” Park said shortly after she was appointed as the party’s interim chief.

About 450 GNP representatives endorsed the appointment of Park in a unanimous vote at a meeting in Seoul.

She will lead the party as interim chief until the general election in April, succeeding Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, who resigned from the chairmanship earlier this month.

Park returns to the helm of the GNP at a time when the conservative party has been beleaguered by by-election defeats, corruption scandals, and most recently, a devastating allegation that its officials were involved in a cyber attack against the national election watchdog during the October vote for Seoul mayor. 

Opposition parties claim that the cyber attack was an attempt to influence the outcome of the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral by-election where the GNP candidate was crushed by opposition-backed maverick Park Won-soon.

“I believe that the case should be thoroughly investigated, with all possible means and that all those who are found to have been involved should be brought to justice,” Park said, hinting that she could accept the opposition groups’ request for a parliamentary probe or appointment of an independent council on the case.

Currently, public prosecutors are leading the investigation into the scandal.

Park said she aims to complete the formation of a leadership council by the end of this week, bringing in outside figures who can assist her in reforming the party and preparations for the April election.

“I am thinking of a council that has the right balance between party and non-party members,” she said.

The moribund ruling party is unifying around Park, its strongest presidential candidate, after she successfully mended last week a rift among its members over how to get out of the current crisis.

Some rebel members argued that the party must disband to stand a chance to win elections next year. Park promised them reforms that go “beyond recreation.”

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)