ed Feud in the royal court?

Reshuffle of Cheong Wa Dae should precede all else

What seems to have occurred around President Park Geun-hye since her inauguration befits a medieval monarchy, not a modern democracy.

It is bad enough for Koreans to run into another scandal involving their first female leader, called “memogate,” caused by memoranda detailing the behind-the-scenes power struggle between President Park’s younger brother and her former chief secretary.

Even more embarrassing, public prosecutors are focusing their probes not on whether and how much of them are true, but on how the papers were written and leaked outside the presidential office.

The misguided investigation of course astonished few Koreans, who have long known the nation’s law enforcement officers are just handmaidens of the people in power. At a meeting with her aides Monday, President Park sent a "guideline” to investigators, defining the papers as a "collection of rumors” and telling officials to hurry up punishing whistleblowers.

It was a most regretful ― and shameful ― way to deal with a scandal involving the chief executive herself. As seen too often, President Park has a unique way of handling scandals involving her close aides and officials she appointed to key posts ― she expresses anger instead of feeling sorry and apologizing to the people. Only leaders who think themselves as kings or queens would do so.

Local media have called President Park’s Cheong Wa Dae secretaries the "Ten Attendants” ― comparing them to 10 eunuchs who served the last emperor of China’s Han Dynasty ― and the three most powerful ones among them as "The Gang of Three” (who hold the doorknobs to Park’s room). Even Park’s chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, reportedly cannot meet his boss without the consent of the three closest secretaries, who in turn are allegedly remote-controlled by her ``unofficial” chief of staff, Jeung Yun-hoe, who served Park for 16 years at the National Assembly.

Jeung and his gang were reportedly so powerful that they meddled in the appointment of ranking officials in the police, military, top spy agency and even government ministries. Now Koreans can see why President Park’s personnel management has been regarded as the very worst. Park’s "official” chief of staff, Kim, might even have felt it unfair when the media accused him of the incomprehensible naming of unqualified people to important posts.

One might guess Park’s reported reliance on a very narrow ― and secretive ― inner circle of aides as stemming from her memories of her father, former President Park Chung-hee, who was slain by one of his henchmen. But that was decades ago, when Korea was under a military dictatorship. Koreans are finding the situation perplexing, in which the incumbent president’s one-woman rule and her excessive secrecy are resulting in frequent comparisons to the Joseon Kingdom.

It is long past time for Park to open up Cheong Wa Dae and conduct state affairs in more plausible and transparent ways. She should believe in the public, in the Korean people, not in a handful of aides. She must trust the government system, not a secret inside operation.

Park must renovate Cheong Wa Dae, its personnel and the system, doing away with her chiefs of staff ― both in and outside the presidential office ― as well as the three most controversial aides. Nothing less will restore people’s trust in their leader and her secretariat. Time is not on her side.