South Korea’s main opposition party on Monday mounted an offensive against President Park Geun-hye over a document leak scandal that allegedly exposes influence-peddling by her current and former top aides.

The attack came after Park made controversial remarks about the incident Sunday during a meeting with governing party lawmakers. She described the recent scandal, which involves her former confidant Chung Yoon-hoi, as a national embarrassment. It did not deserve public attention, Park said.

Rather, she continued, the nation should focus on improving its economic prospects. Governing Saenuri Party lawmakers applauded in agreement.

But the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy expressed anger, saying Park’s words would exert unwarranted political pressure on prosecutors who are currently probing the case, as Park appeared to hint she would ignore any investigation result that cast her in an unfavorable light.

The Sunday meeting at Cheong Wa Dae showed that Park essentially “ruled over” governing party legislators, the NPAD claimed, pointing to her overwhelming influence over the ruling party in a nation that does not follow the traditional parliamentary form of government.

“What happened at the meeting (on Sunday) was wrong,” NPAD interim chair Rep. Moon Hee-sang said.

“The government’s top executive did not even express regret (over the Chung scandal). She even told the governing party not to be swept away by the incident. And as usual our (Saenuri Party) colleagues failed to say ‘no’ to the president.”

NPAD floor leader Rep. Woo Yoon-keun agreed with Moon.

“President Park in effect gave guidelines to prosecutors,” he said. It goes to show that our government system gives quasi-imperial authorities to the president, Woo added.

Leaked documents from the presidential office alleged last month that Chung had interfered in top government personnel decisions, using close ties to 10 key officials, some of whom reportedly worked in the presidential office.

The leaked papers allege that Chung attempted to sack Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon, and that Chung had even tailed Park Ji-man, the president’s younger brother as part of a power struggle over the president’s favors.

Prosecutors are investigating how the documents were leaked, and whether the reports are true. Chung is denying the charges.

But prosecutors are suspected to be under immense pressure, with the highly-politicized case expected to cast a cloud over Park if investigations show Chung did illegally participate in government affairs.

“If President Park does not properly respond to this incident, I am more than sure that she will become a premature lame duck,” NPAD leader Rep. Moon said.

“(The NPAD) does not want the Park administration to fail” the five-term opposition lawmaker added.

But she must regain public trust by cutting her ties to any external power group, Moon said. “If that is not possible, I urge the Saenuri Party to agree to a parliamentary probe into the scandal,” he added.

The Saenuri Party urged the opposition to wait until prosecutors finish their investigations, echoing the comments Park made Sunday.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)