Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye said Wednesday that she would soon announce her position on issues surrounding the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation as both parties turned up the pressure to remove her associate Choi Phil-lip as its chairman.

“I will soon reveal my position,” Park said in answer to questions regarding the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation and its chairman of the board Choi Phil-lip.

Park had until now maintained that she currently has no ties to the foundation and that she has already said all that she had to say about the matter.

While Park attempted to keep her distance from the foundation that she chaired from 1999 until 2005, the main opposition Democratic United Party has kept up a barrage of attacks to discredit Park’s claims.

DUP chairman Park Jie-won referred to Park’s claims as “comedy” while DUP Rep. Bae Jae-jeung claims to have secured evidence of a Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation official and close aides of Park having a phone conversation about “response measures” as recently as Sunday.

In addition to the DUP’s attack, calls by Park’s campaign aides and party for Choi to step down shed further doubt on her claims of having no ties to the foundation.

On Wednesday, Han Gwang-ok, who heads Park campaign’s committee on social integration, said Choi should step down to avoid causing misunderstandings for the conservative presidential candidate, adding his voice to earlier comments from Saenuri chief Hwang Woo-yea and Ahn Dae-hee, the head of the party’s political reform special committee.

Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation was founded in 1962 using the assets of a Busan-based businessman. In 2007, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the businessman was forced to donate the assets, which include shares of the broadcaster MBC and the provincial daily Busan Ilbo.

The foundation became a hot issue in the presidential campaign earlier this month following reports that the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation planned to sell its shares in MBC and the newspaper.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)