By Kang Hyun-kyung
A close aide to Rep Park Geun-hye, presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, resigned from a key post Sunday amid pressure for Park confidants to keep their hands off party affairs.
It remains uncertain whether Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan stepping down from chief of staff of the Park camp could calm down disgruntled members, who called for Rep. Park to reshuffle her campaign to regain support from voters.
Some insiders predicted that the calls for a campaign shake-up would not fade away as two key people, Chairman Hwang Woo-yea and floor leader Lee Hahn-koo, showed no signs of stepping down.
During a news conference held at the party’s headquarters in Seoul, Choi said he decided to step down to take all the responsibility for Rep. Park’s lackluster ratings.
“Although the presidential election is just around the corner, no one in our party was so sure about whether Rep. Park could win the race or not. Criticism erupted and some played a blame game thereafter,” the two-term lawmaker said.
“(Facing the tough situation), I had thought deeply about what I was supposed to do to help the presidential candidate win the race. And concluded that I would resign and take all the responsibility for what went wrong in our party. I hope for no more blame games in our party.”
There have been mounting calls for Park to seek a campaign shake-up ahead of the presidential election as some of her aides allegedly ruined the electioneering.
Earlier, Rep. Yoo Seong-min alleged that the Saenuri Party leadership, including Chairman Hwang and floor leader Lee, tried only to curry favor with Park, while neglecting their job of providing necessary advice that can help her have the upper hand in the race.
Yoo urged them to step down from their post to help Rep. Park feel free to place right people in the camp. Park disagreed, saying she didn’t feel that such a move was necessary as the lineup was completed recently.
After this, Reps. Hwang and Lee refused to take the call to resign, too.
This ignited Kim Jong-in, a chief campaign strategist handling Park’s visions for economic justice, as he has had bickering with floor leader Lee regarding the direction of economic justice earlier. Kim and Lee were in a rift over whether conglomerates are the object of regulation or not.
Kim called for a set of measures to curb corporate greed, whereas Lee defended conglomerates and said regulation would only hamper business activities.
Lee’s refusal to resign from floor leader rekindled the Lee-Kim bad blood which resurfaced last week.