Presidential Aide Steps Down
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Park Mi-suk, senior presidential secretary for social affairs and welfare, offered to resign over allegations of property speculation and plagiarism, a Cheong Wa Dae official Sunday.
Park tendered her resignation Saturday afternoon to presidential chief of staff Yu Woo-ik, the official said.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) will announce its official position on questionable wealth accumulation of some presidential secretaries today, a party source said.
GNP lawmakers have urged Park to immediately step down.
``Park has not properly pursued her duties as a presidential secretary over mounting allegations of property speculation. She should resign so as to help the President,'' Rep. Gong Sung-jin said.
Gong's advice came after the party's Ethics Committee Chairman, In Myung-jin, claimed she revealed a detrimental flaw as a person in public service.
Park became a target of public anger for a false statement she made to avoid a possible backlash against her alleged speculative land deals.
According to asset disclosure of presidential secretaries made public last Thursday, Park's family purchased 1,353 square meters of farming land worth more than 185 million won in Incheon under her husband's name six years ago.
Under the current law, those who purchase agricultural land must submit a farming plan and also cultivate the land themselves or lease it through a state agency.
In an apparent attempt to justify her land purchase, Park turned in a certificate to the presidential office explaining how her family members grew agricultural products there.
The certificate was a fake, as none of her family members had cultivated land but let a local farmer do it.
Park denied every allegation.
No stranger to allegations of wrongdoing, Park underwent thorough public scrutiny in February for her alleged involvement in plagiarism when she served as a faculty member of Sookmyung Women's University.
She allegedly used students' articles in academic journals she submitted, but dismissed the accusation.
The Korea Research Foundation ruled no plagiarism, but public criticism lingers.