President Park Geun-hye criticized previous administrations in an unusually strong tone Tuesday for turning a blind eye to vexing, longstanding issues, such as nuclear industry corruption and unpaid fines owed by former President Chun Doo-hwan.

“The issue of the former president’s fines has been there for over 10 years, but previous governments failed to find a solution.

Only now is the new government trying to resolve it,” Park said during a Cabinet meeting. “It is nonsense to ask the new government to take responsibility for everything. I want to ask what the past governments have done.”

Former President Chun, who ruled from 1981-1988, was ordered by the Supreme Court in 1997 to return 220 billion won ($195 million) to the state coffers, which he was found to have accumulated illegally. But he refused to make the payment, saying he was almost penniless.

He has so far paid only a quarter of the total, and some 167.2 billion won remains unpaid.

Calls for collecting the fines have risen recently as the statute of limitations for the fines will expire in October.

Lawmakers have proposed a series of bills aimed at collecting the fines, though it remains unclear whether they will be passed by parliament.

Park also questioned irregularities at nuclear power reactors, saying the problems have been built up through successive governments. She also stressed the need for finding out how the problems had been buried through the years.

Corruption involving the nuclear industry came to the light after two power-generating atomic reactors were turned off late last month after they were found to be using substandard control cables supplied under fake quality warranties.

The suspension sparked worries about a power shortage ahead of high demand in summer. (Yonhap News)