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Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Man-soo said Tuesday that Korean Ambassador to the United States Hong Seok-hyun had submitted his resignation to President Roh Moo-hyun on Monday night, and President Roh had decided to accept it. Accordingly, Hong will leave his ambassadorship just five months after he was officially appointed on February 15.
Hong is reportedly one of two men discussing illegal campaign contributions for the 1997 presidential election in a tape illegally recorded by a secret service crack team and leaked to broadcaster MBC earlier this year. Five days after the story broke last week, Hong called Cheong Wa Dae Chief of Staff Kim Woo-sik and offered to fall on his sword over the resulting public outcry. Kim said Hong, who was publisher of the JoongAng Ilbo daily when the tape was made, told the presidential office he was sorry for causing anxiety.
Kim said the president had yet to decide whether to keep Hong in the post until a successor has been named or name an acting ambassador. Cheong Wa Dae has started looking for a replacement in view of the importance of the post, but the process will take at least a month since it is customary to seek the approval of the host nation.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office started a full-scale investigation of the bugging scandal on Tuesday. Should Samsung, whose then restructuring chief Lee Hak-soo is the other man on the tape, file complaints against media companies for reporting on the tape, prosecutors will reportedly handle that investigation alongside a complaint against Samsung and others filed by the civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.
The matter will be handled by the prosecution’s Public Safety section, suggesting that the probe will focus on the eavesdropping operation itself rather than any illegality revealed by the clandestinely recorded dinner conversations of leading figures during the Kim Young-sam administration.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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