High-profile former Saenuri Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won gave up her parliamentary bid amid deepening allegations that her judge husband asked a prosecutor in 2005 to charge a blogger for defaming her.

The judge-turned-politician had applied for Saenuri nomination in a central Seoul district.

“I don’t want to burden the party any more due to the allegations,” she said during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Seoul.

Her husband, Kim Jae-ho, senior judge at Seoul Eastern District Court, and Na have denied the allegations.

The prosecutor in question, Park Eun-jeong, currently working at the Bucheon branch of Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office, is now under investigation. Park tendered her resignation last week, but her office returned it.

Na resigned as a lawmaker last October to run in the Seoul mayoral by-election.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)