One of the leaders of South Korea’s main opposition party on Monday called for law enforcement authorities to reinvestigate “suspicious deaths surrounding” President Park Geun-hye.
“Another death. How many deaths have there been so far?” asked Rep. Woo Sang-ho, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, referring to a longtime secretary of Park Ji-man, the president’s younger brother.
The man, a 45-year-old surnamed Joo, was found dead Sunday at his home in southern Seoul. Police said Monday an autopsy pointed to a heart attack as the cause of death. They added that they found neither traces of forced entry to his home nor a suicide note.
The news came amid renewed suspicions over deaths surrounding President Park and her siblings, after a TV program last month shed new light on the 2011 murder-suicide of two cousins once removed from the president. It suggested their deaths may be linked to an incident in 2007 in China that Shin Dong-wook, the husband of Park’s younger sister Geun-ryeong, claimed was a failed attempt by one of the now-deceased cousins to murder him.
“Around President Park, people have died mysteriously. Those deaths should be reinvestigated,” the liberal politician said during a meeting of the party’s top-decision-making Supreme Council at the National Assembly in Seoul.
Park is known to be estranged from her two siblings following a bitter fight over a scholarship foundation left behind by her parents -- the late President Park Chung-hee and first lady Yuk Young-soo.
Shin, the president’s brother-in-law, claimed Park Geun-hye, together with Ji-man, kicked Park Geun-ryeong out of the foundation, and his protest of the incident led to the purported murder attempt. A local court ruled in 2012 that Shin’s claims were defamation against Park Geun-hye and Park Ji-man.
By Korea Herald staff()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
