SEOUL, April 15 (Reuters) - South Korean President Park
Geun-hye said she would have zero tolerance for corruption, amid
calls for her prime minister to quit over allegations 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 on Wednesday over whether he took 30
million 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.
"We must make sure to set straight the fresh allegations
that have been raised as a matter of political reform," Park
said at a meeting with senior government officials.
"I will not forgive anyone who is responsible for corruption
or wrongdoing," she said in her first public comment on the
scandal since it erupted last Thursday.
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 prominent
Saenuri Party members of parliament.
Prosecutors found a note on Sung's body making similar
accusations, which they said was in his handwriting.
Park's past and current chiefs of staff were named, but all
have denied receiving money.
Under a campaign finance law passed in 2004 as the
predecessor to the Saenuri Party was battling an earlier bribery
scandal before a crucial parliamentary election, political
contributions in excess of 100,000 won were made illegal.
Corporations are banned from making political donations
under the law, which is aimed at severing ties between the
government and businesses looking to secure favours.
($1 = 1,095.3400 won)
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Tony Munroe and Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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