The ruling Saenuri Party presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye took steps aimed to end the controversy surrounding a scholarship foundation set up by her father late President Park Chung-hee that has received flak from her detractors.

In an interview with a local daily, Park said criticism being lodged by her political opponents have effectively tarnished the image and purpose of the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation.

The 60-year-old lawmaker, who won her party’s presidential candidacy on Aug. 20, then said that she expected the board of the foundation to make a “wise decision” on how the scholarship should be run in the future, hinting that she favored a change in the leadership.

The remarks mark the first time that Park, who was the board’s chairwoman from 1994 through 2005, made a direct comment on how the foundation should deal with its incumbent president Choi Phil-lip.

Choi worked as an aide to the late president and is known as a trusted confident of the five-term lawmaker who could become the country’s first woman president.

Political sources speculated that the remarks are an indirect way of asking for Choi to step down voluntarily after previous attempts made through third parties failed to have the desired effect.

Park has made clear that while the foundation was created by her father in 1962, she currently exercises no control over what it does and decisions made by the governing board.

The move by the presidential candidate, running as one of the front-runners in the polls, comes as her opponents have said the foundation is “stolen property” taken from the previous owner under duress.

The foundation, in addition, has been a source of feuding between Park and her younger sister Park Geun-ryong, which has been an embarrassment for Park.

Meanwhile, party sources said the comments by Park, represent a symbolic declaration rather than having any legal sway, but they hoped it could get the message across to Choi, who claimed he is holding onto the post to guard President Park’s legacy.

“If he steps down, the controversy surrounding the foundation will likely ease since there will no longer be any tangible links between Park and the public scholarship for critics to attack,” a party insider said.

Others, however, said Choi may not be easily moved, citing the failure of past talks.

“He has repeatedly made clear that Park has nothing to do with Jeongsu, and media reports have not affected his stance,” said an official engaged in past discussions with the foundation chief. He said that if there is no change in his attitude, there may be a need talk to the other four board members to remove him from his post.

Saenuri sources, meanwhile, speculated that the move could spell the start of more active measures by Park to distance herself from her father’s legacy.

This week, the contender saw her ratings dip after she made remarks that were construed as ignoring the country’s legal system and belittling the suffering of dissidents under her father’s 18-year rule.

A survey by RealMeter showed her approval rating dwindling in a hypothetical two-way race with Ahn Cheol-soo, the founder of anti-virus software firm AhnLab and present dean of a convergence science graduate school at Seoul National University.

Park’s rating fell to 45.4 percent compared to 45.1 percent for Ahn in the poll conducted on 1,500 people nationwide on Wednesday and Thursday. This is a drop from 47.3 percent for Park and a gain for Ahn, who is expected to announce his bid for president in the near future.

Her remarks made during a radio interview on the infamous “Inhyukdang” incident sparked fresh debate on the way she views history. She said that there were two opposing court verdicts and stressed that people should not dwell on the past but look toward the future.

Alleged members of Inhyukdang, or the People’s Revolution Party in English, were arrested in April 1974 and sentenced to death or up to life imprisonment on charges of violating the anti-Communist act. Those arrested were mostly university students opposing the dictatorship with all people involved subsequently cleared of wrongdoings. (Yonhap News)