Scandal-tainted prosecutor general nominee offers to resign

(ATTN: UPDATES with presidential office's response and background from 4th para)
SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak's nominee for the country's
next prosecutor general, Chun Sung-gwan, offered to resign on Tuesday, holding
himself responsible for growing suspicions of corruption stemming from his
family's dubious financial transactions with a Seoul businessman.
Chun, current head of the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office, was designated by
the president as the new prosecutor general on June 21, but was beleaguered by
suspicious money transactions, including billions of won borrowed from a
businessman friend, while undergoing a parliamentary confirmation hearing earlier
this week.
In a brief statement issued Tuesday evening, Chun said, "I have decided to quit
my official position. I hold myself fully responsible for causing deep concern to
the nation during the parliamentary confirmation hearing."
A ranking official at the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, said President Lee
is planning to accept Chun's resignation.
The president was briefed on the results of the parliamentary hearing by his
aides on returning home earlier Tuesday from his week-long trip to Europe.
"President Lee was given a briefing on Chun and told his aides that suspicions
regarding Chun contradict noblesse oblige. The president also said anybody
pursuing ranking public offices should be exemplary in their conduct," said the
official.
The 52-year-old Chun became the first prosecutor general nominee to quit
following a parliamentary confirmation hearing, a system introduced here in 2003.
Chun also told Yonhap News by phone later, "I have become a burden to the
president and the nation and made the people despondent. I have but myself to
blame."
Since his unexpected designation as the nation's top prosecutor last month,
opposition lawmakers have raised questions over his purchase of a 2.85 billion
won (US$2.2 million) apartment in southern Seoul with 1.55 billion won borrowed
from his friend.
Chun also admitted faking his residential records in 1998 to send his son to a
high school in southern Seoul, an area noted for quality education. His wife's
suspicious lease contract with a local construction firm for the use of a Hyundai
Genesis sedan was intensively questioned during the confirmation hearing.
In the face of the offensive by opposition lawmakers, Chun failed to give
convincing responses to almost all suspicions of corruption, giving rise to a
wave of public anger.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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