South Korean president Park Geun-hye said she would have zero tolerance for corruption, amid calls for her prime minister to quit over an allegation that he took illegal campaign money from a businessman found dead last week in an apparent suicide. The scandal threatens to weaken Park politically in the third year of a single five-year term and could damage her ruling Saenuri Party, which faces a parliamentary general election next year for control of the 300-seat assembly. Prime minister Lee Han-koo faced a second day of intense questions in parliament yesterday over whether he took 30mn won ($27,000) in 2013 from businessman Sung Wan-jong, who was found last Thursday hanging by his necktie from a tree while under investigation for fraud and bribery. Lee denied he took any money from Sung and said he would subject himself to an investigation by prosecutors, rejecting opposition calls for his resignation.Park said the allegations Sung made before his death must be investigated. Hours before he was found dead on a mountainside in northern Seoul, Sung said in an interview with a local newspaper that he had given political funds to Park’s close aides and to Saenuri Party members of parliament.
President Park Geun-hye.
