Park Gets New Clothes

President-elect Park Geun-hye has bought two colorful new jackets recently. She was spotted wearing one of them at the opening Friday of a global venture business job fair, and the other for a New Year's event and in a meeting with Chinese special envoy Zhang Zhijun on Thursday.

Park has recently favored pant suits since she became the Saenuri Party's presidential candidate last year, prompting comparisons with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But there is a difference. "Merkel's clothes are made by famous European designers, but only Park knows where her clothes come from," said an aide to the president-elect. "She likes pant suits because she can put notes for her speeches in the pant pockets," the aide added.

Park prefers primary colors such as red, which is the official color of the Saenuri Party, as well as purple and yellow.

Park's clothes were already subject to criticism. The opposition camp accused her of wearing no fewer than 133 different sets of clothes over the last three years. But Choi Kyung-hwan, her campaign office chief, told reporters she only wore three suits in turn before she bought two more towards the end of the campaign, and has worn the same Korean-made shoes for more than 10 years.