Why does Pres. Park skip an apology to the people?

President Park Geun-hye, who is now on a tour to South America, said, “The prosecution should conduct an investigation in the context of political reform to clarify everything,” after being reported on Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo’s resignation on Tuesday. With regard to the “Sung Wan-jong corruption scandal,” President Park believes that corruption is a deep-rooted evil in politics, regardless of ruling and opposition parties, and the scope of investigation should be expanded to entire politicians who received illegal money. The president made similar comments in a meeting on the Sewol ferry disaster on Wednesday, a day before her four-country tour. However, the order of the investigation should not be changed by the president’s intention.

The prosecution summoned Park Joon-ho, a former executive of Keangnam Enterprises who was a confidant of Sung Wan-jong, the company’s chairman, as a testifier on Tuesday. The investigation is now focused on Prime Minister Lee and South Gyeongsang Province Governor Hong Jun-pyo. Most of the eight people on Sung’s memo played a key role in the Park Geun-hye camp in the 2012 presidential campaign or the presidential primary race of the Grand National Party in 2007. Except for Heo Tae-yeol, a former chief of staff who allegedly received 700 million won (646,600 US dollars) for primaries, Rep. Hong Moon-jong of the Saenuri Party who allegedly received 200 million(184,700 dollars) to 300 million won (277,100 dollars) in the presidential election, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok and Busan Mayor Seo Byeong-soo managed funds during the presidential election. Opposition parties claim that Prime Minister Lee and Governor Hong are not important and the prosecution should focus on investigating the funds used for the presidential election and the presidential primaries which are directly related to President Park. It is not sure whether the prosecution can investigate the “living power.”

Prosecutors found telephone records that Kim Ki-choon, a former presidential chief of staff, and Sung called around 40 times and Lee Byeong-kee, current presidential chief of staff, called Sung some 140 times. When the suspicions arose, Kim completely denied the allegation, saying, “It is groundless. I have never met Sung since I became a presidential chief of staff.” When Sung’s schedule that he had dinner with Kim on Nov. 6, 2013 was unveiled, Kim changed words and said, “I had dinner with five lawmakers based in Chungcheong Province.”

As for Prime Minister Lee’s intention to resign, President Park said, “It’s very regrettable and I feel his agony.” It is not the right order to care for the prime minister who allegedly received bribes. The suspicion is directly related to the election that the president had. Nevertheless, the president says it is someone else’s business, which is criticized as an “out-of-body speech.”

When President Park mentioned the prosecution’s investigation on Wednesday, the president did not clearly said about the funds spent for her presidential election and party primaries. The president needs to ask the prosecution to investigate issues related to her confidants as self-examination first. Investigating those from opposition parties who received bribes from Sung should come next. The presidential office should not be reported on the prosecution’s investigation at all. If the prosecution fails to gain the people’s trust, the Park Geun-hye administration could be in a deep trouble.