Revelation indicates presidential aide's key role in ruling party bribery scandal

Revelation indicates presidential aide's key role in ruling party bribery scandal

A former secretary to Kim Hyo-jae, the senior presidential aide, distributed bribes to ruling party lawmakers before National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae's winning bid to become head of the ruling Grand National Party in 2008, a party lawmaker's office said Thursday. Prosecutors are investigating allegations Park greased the palms of lawmakers and district council members to muster votes before attaining chairmanship of the party, recently renamed the Saenuri Party. Prosecutors have summoned Park's close aides and are considering calling the presidential aide also as they scurry to track the source of the alleged bribes. Kim was the policy monitoring chief for Park's election camp for the July 3 election. The latest revelation, if true, is expected to help expedite the investigation into the scandal. "One afternoon in July right before the 2008 party convention, lawmaker Kim Hyo-jae's secretary came to me and handed me an envelope of money," said a source from the office of a ruling party lawmaker on condition of anonymity. "The yellow document envelope had three bundles of bills totaling 3 million won ($2,688) in it, along with a name card reading Park Hee-tae," the source said. The aide was accompanied by another person who was carrying a stack of similar envelopes suspected to contain more money. The investigation had stalled after Park's aides strongly denied any involvement in vote-buying during questioning. Heeding a severe public outcry, Park resigned from the speaker's position, citing "responsibility for troubles involving myself." Park dropped his party affiliation in 2010 to become the parliamentary speaker. (Yonhap)