South Korean Premier Offers His Resignation
By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo of South Korea said Tuesday that he had offered to resign over a snowballing bribery scandal, dealing a blow to President Park Geun-hye, whose government has already been rocked by a ferry disaster.

Mr. Lee has been under mounting pressure from within Ms. Park’s governing Saenuri Party, as well as from the opposition, to step down after an allegation emerged this month that he took 30 million won, or $27,700, in illegal cash donations from a South Korean businessman in 2013.

The businessman, Sung Wan-jong, hanged himself from a tree on April 9, the day he was scheduled to appear before a court to fight attempts by prosecutors to arrest him on corruption charges. He was the first target in the Park government’s widening investigation into corruption allegations that were said to have taken place under her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.

Yet Mr. Sung, a former lawmaker and chairman of a bankrupt construction company, did not go silently: He left behind a memorandum and a tape of a telephone interview that he gave to a South Korean newspaper hours before he died. On the tape and in the memo he detailed illegal cash gifts that he said he had given to Mr. Lee and a few other key political allies of Ms. Park, including both of her former chiefs of staff.

Like the others on Mr. Sung’s list, Mr. Lee denied receiving illegal cash. He even denied knowing Mr. Sung well. But his credibility crumbled fast as domestic news media revealed photographs, telephone records and Mr. Sung’s diaries that indicated the two had spoken on the phone or met numerous times. Mr. Lee faced the increasing likelihood that he would become the first sitting prime minister to be questioned by prosecutors in a corruption inquiry.

In a statement sent to reporters early Tuesday, Mr. Lee’s office said he had offered his resignation to Ms. Park on Monday.

Ms. Park, who was on a trip to South America, called Mr. Lee’s decision “deeply regrettable,” according to her spokesman, Min Kyung-wook. South Korean news media quoted unnamed top aides to Ms. Park as saying that she would officially accept Mr. Lee’s resignation as soon as she returned from the trip next Monday.

If that happens, Mr. Lee, once a powerful and cocky party insider, will go down as one of the shortest-serving prime ministers in South Korean history. During his confirmation hearings in February, an audio tape emerged of him boasting to young journalists over lunch in January that he was so well connected with top news media executives that he could ruin the career of unfriendly reporters.

Ms. Park has called for a thorough investigation of the bribery scandal. Besides Mr. Lee, Hong Joon-pyo, a former head of Ms. Park’s governing party who now serves as a provincial governor, was cited in domestic news media as the first to face a summons. Mr. Sung said he gave Mr. Hong 100 million won, or $92,000, in illegal campaign donations in 2011. Mr. Hong, who as a young prosecutor built a reputation as an anticorruption crusader, has denied the accusations.

Ms. Park’s governing party faced the bribery scandal on the eve of elections for four parliamentary seats next week.

Her approval ratings plunged after the ferry Sewol capsized off the southwestern coast a year ago, killing 304 people, most of them teenagers. Corporate greed, regulatory failures and corrupt relationships between government officials and businessmen were cited as factors.

In the past week, as the country marked the first anniversary of the disaster, protesters marching on Ms. Park’s office clashed with tear-gas-spraying riot police officers in downtown Seoul. The marchers, including bereaved families, demanded that the government reopen an investigation into its failures in rescue efforts.

南韓總理涉賄請辭 重創朴槿惠威信

涉嫌收賄的南韓總理李完九廿一日表示，他已向正在拉丁美洲訪問的朴槿惠總統請辭。此政治危機勢必再度重創朴槿惠的領導威信，恐讓她在未來兩年多任期中難以推動重大政策。

南韓媒體說，朴槿惠廿七日回國後會立即批准李完九的辭呈，他上台僅兩個月。

這件醜聞主角是房產商人成完鐘。成完鐘曾是國會議員，2008年南韓前總統李明博上任後，鼓勵國營和民營企業舉債購買海外能源資產，成完鐘涉嫌誇大投資俄國石油探勘計畫的預期利潤，取得八百億韓元（約台幣廿二億元）的政府貸款，並將這筆貸款的一部分作為行賄基金。

遭調查的成完鐘遭檢方聲請羈押，本月九日原本將在聲押庭出庭，當天他卻上吊身亡，還隨身帶著一張字條，寫著李完九和總統府秘書長李丙琪等八名朴槿惠親信名字，和可能意指賄款的數字。

成完鐘自殺前一天接受報紙訪問時透露，李完九2013年競選國會議員時，他曾捐助三千萬韓元（約台幣八十七萬元）。李完九否認收錢，甚至宣稱不認識成完鐘。不過媒體隨後刊出兩人合照、電話通聯紀錄和成完鐘的日記等，顯示兩人多次會面。誠信崩盤的李完九面對黨內和反對黨愈來愈大的逼退壓力，終於被迫請辭。

朴槿惠對李完九請辭「深感遺憾」。她上任兩年以來，不斷因人事任命不當遭到抨擊，一年前「世越號」渡輪船難造成三百零四人喪生，後續風波重創她的聲望。美聯社說，愈來愈多人認為，朴槿惠的威信將再遭打擊，在剩下的任期中恐難再推動拉近貧富差距、接觸北韓等重大政策目標。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/world/asia/south-korean-premier-offers-his-resignation.html

2015-04-22．聯合報．A17．國際．編譯組