Controversy on a corruption scandal-ridden top presidential aide resurfaced Monday, with Cheong Wa Dae once again denying rumors on his imminent dismissal and gesturing at continuing their back-scratching relationship.

This time, it was a report by an influential daily which said the exit of Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo is just around the corner.

“The given report is completely false,” presidential spokesperson Jung Youn-kuk told reporters, referring to JoongAng Ilbo’s exclusive report which claimed that President Park Geun-hye has made up her mind to replace the civil affairs chief.

“I understand that the president made the decision (to dismiss Woo) so as to break through the political crisis (caused by the feuding concerning his corruption allegations),” the newspaper said, quoting a ranking official of the ruling Saenuri Party.

The anonymous party official suggested the measure is likely to take place within the week, shortly before the parliamentary House Steering Committee’s state audit on the presidential office on Friday.

The growing speculation on Woo’s impending expulsion gained further momentum as the Blue House suddenly called off the president’s planned meeting with senior secretaries on Monday morning.

“The meeting will be put off, due to internal reasons,” spokesperson Jung said.

Asked about the reason for the cancellation, he said “there is no special reason to pay attention to it,” adding that such rescheduling has happened before.

Instead of meeting with her top officials, the president will focus on seeking solutions to “serious pending problems,” such as North Korea’s nuclear provocations and the nation’s economic situation, he said.

As for the suspected connection between the sudden cancellation and the alleged plan to replace Woo, the official refuted it, accusing the daily of false reporting.

While denying the dismissal rumor, Cheong Wa Dae continued to hold its ground on not sending the disputed senior presidential secretary as a witness in the state audit, citing “common practices.”

In contrast to the presidential office’s thorough defense of Woo, the Saenuri camp has recently gestured at summoning him as witness, hoping to make progress in the political stalemate and to gain an upper hand over the opposition.

“I personally hope that (Woo) will show up (at the state audit on Friday), even for just an hour or two,” the Saenuri floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk told reporters Monday.

“The reason that senior presidential secretaries were spared from past audits was because rival parties reached a consensus on it, which is not the case this time.”

Having reconfirmed the Blue House’s move not to displace Woo, the opposition camp geared up on its calls for a thorough investigation into the extensive corruption charges circling around the disputed aide.

“There is a plot to smother state affairs scandals and to silence opposition lawmakers, and at the heart of it is Woo,” said Rep. Choo Mi-ae, chief of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea at a party meeting.

“Under the National Assembly Act, Woo should by all means attend the state audit session as a witness.”

Minjoo kicked off a special task force on Monday to dig into the allegations that presidential confidants, including Woo, had exerted pressure upon the prosecution to intensively crack down on opposition lawmakers.

Since July this year, Woo has been under fire for a series of allegations, which started off from the suggestion that he had covert ties with key figures of high-profile corruption cases.

His scandal later expanded to a larger controversy on the existence of an “invisible political manipulator” group, including not only Woo, but also Choi Soon-sil, a mystery confidant to President Park.

The daughter of Park’s late mentor Choi Tae-min and the ex-wife of Park’s former aide Jeong Yun-hoe, Choi is suspected to have influence-peddled in various organizations by using her close ties with the state leader.


By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)