By Kim Rahn
No apology, no sincerity, as always.
Ousted President Park Geun-hye had not much to say about the massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal that has rocked the nation.
Upon arrival at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Tuesday, Park only said, “I’m sorry to the people. I will cooperate with the prosecution.”
She again fell short of people’s expectations to own up to the truth about the nation’s worst presidential scandal, indicating her will to stage a protracted legal battle.
Considering her response to the scandal so far, Park is likely to stick to denial and a refusal to answer questions during the investigation as well. Such an attitude may have disappointed people more than the fact that she committed wrongdoing along with her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.
Although evidence backs her deep involvement in the scandal, she has only tried to conceal the truth, insisting on her own account through unscrupulous speeches, messages and interviews since the affair surfaced in October. This was one of the reasons cited by the Constitutional Court when it upheld her impeachment.
When she left Cheong Wa Dae and headed to her private house in southern Seoul, March 12, two days after the court ruling, she delivered a message through an aide: “I’m sorry for failing to fulfill my duty as president. I thank you for your support. I’ll bear everything. I believe that the truth will be revealed in the end, although it will take time.”
This message showed Park had refused to accept the court’s decision, indicating she believes the ruling and all the findings by investigators were false.
Previously Park gave three short speeches and had an interview with a right-wing online news outlet, without accepting any questions. At first she flatly denied all allegations. But as evidence showed up piece by piece, she changed her account little by little: she admitted some facts but claimed they were part of her policies, and that she did not know Choi and her cronies were committing wrongdoing during their implementation.
She said she would accept the prosecution’s questioning but later refused to do so, saying the investigation was politically biased. Then she said she would accept questioning by an independent counsel, which again she backtracked on.
Such flip-flopping and the “I don’t know anything” attitude rather backfired: some of the court’s reasons to oust Park were that she hid Choi’s meddling in state affairs, denied this whenever suspicions rose, gave false explanations to the public and did not make any effort to keep her promises about facing questioning.
“Judging from her words and actions, she has no will to defend the Constitution,” acting court President Lee Jung-mi said in the impeachment ruling. “Her violations of the Constitution and the law are a betrayal of the people’s trust and cannot be tolerated.”
Political parties criticized the short remark Park made before entering the prosecutors’ office. “There was no message on self-reflection, an apology or national unity,” the Democratic Party of Korea said in a statement. “She needs to faithfully cooperate with the questioning as she said in order to verify the truth.”
Justice Party Chairwoman Sim Sang-jung said, “If she really reflected on her wrongdoing, it would have appeased people’s anger quite a lot. But the nasty former president even did not give the people a chance to forgive, which hurt them again.”