The presidential race is getting nasty with rival parties trading barbs Monday over an alleged blackmail threat by a Saenuri Party official to block potential liberal candidate Ahn Cheol-soo from running in the December election.
The ruling party’s nominee Park Geun-hye denounced Ahn’s legal aide Geum Tae-seop for exaggerating a personal conversation with his friend.
Geum said in a news conference last week that Saenuri public relations official Jeong Joon-gil threatened to divulge bribery and extramarital affair claims involving Ahn if he joined the election.
Jeong denied the claim, saying he had made the phone call as a friendly gesture to warn against the political gossip that would surround a presidential run by the dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University.
“Jeong should have known better than to make the remark even during a casual conversation with his close friend. But it was also inappropriate (for Jeong) to go public with a telephone conversation between friends and use it as a political tool,” she said on a radio interview.
“I think of such an act as outdated politics.”
Geum fought back, demanding that the party apologize.
“Such blackmail is old politics, and disclosing the fact is not. The Saenuri Party should apologize,” he said.
Ahn has become the center of speculation for almost a year as he is very popular among younger voters for his clean image, and has been the only contender to run neck-and-neck with Park in polls.
In the two latest nationwide polls conducted on Friday and Saturday, Ahn trailed Park by a slim margin, which is viewed by pollsters as negligible.
In the interview, Park also said that the controversial political legacies of her father, the late President Park Chung-hee, should be judged by history, and called on politicians to focus on the future instead of the past.
The remarks are a repeat of her stance that there remain conflicting views on her father’s 18-year rule that began with the 1961 military coup.
Supporters claim that the late president laid the foundation for the country’s prosperity, while detractors have argued that his authoritarian rule suppressed democracy.
She said that the Yushin Constitution introduced in 1972 and the infamous “Inhyukdang” incident must be looked at from the perspective of the times, with the final verdict to be reserved for history and the people.
Meanwhile, Park said despite some differences in views on how to push forward economic democratization, she was firmly committed to the policy.
Park said that policy reviews are underway to ban future cross-shareholding arrangements that distort ownership structures of conglomerates, and limit ownership of financial institutions by manufacturing companies.
(From news reports)
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
