Lee confidant announces presidential bid

One of the closest confidants of President Lee Myung-bak announced his presidential bid Thursday, promising sweeping political reforms centered on revising the current single, five-year term presidency to two four-year terms pending reelection.

Rep. Lee Jae-oh said that if elected president, he would seek to revise the Constitution to change the presidential system in his first six months in office, while cutting his own term to three years so presidential and parliamentary elections take place in the same year.

The two biggest elections in South Korea usually take place in different years because lawmakers have a four-year term while the president is elected for five years. This year, however, both elections occur in the same year for the first time in two decades.

The lawmaker, long considered a right-hand man for the president, also claimed the current system gives too much power to the president, making administrations prone to corruption, and called for splitting presidential duties and responsibilities.

"All previous administrations under the single five-year term system collapsed under corruption," Lee said during a press conference. "Under the imperialist presidential system where all powers are concentrated (on the president), whoever becomes president cannot avoid the harmful consequences" of the system.

Lee said the Constitution should be revised in a way that makes the president focus on external matters, such as diplomacy and national security, and the Cabinet take care of domestic issues. He also pledged to reduce the number of lawmakers to 200 from the current 300.

Korea introduced the five-year, single term presidency in 1987 after decades of autocratic rule by military-backed presidents. The system was primarily aimed at keeping the president from attempting to hold on to power through illicit means.

There has been talk before of revising the system, but such proposals never materialized.

Lee, 67, is the latest member of the ruling Saenuri Party to make his presidential ambitions official. Four others have already declared their bids, including Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo, Rep. Chung Mong-joon and former presidential chief of staff Yim Tae-hee.

The party's chief and No. 1 presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye has yet to declare she will run.(Yonhap)