News Analysis: Outgoing UN chief enters painstaking verification as S. Korean presidential hopeful

Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing United Nations secretary general whose second five-year term is slated to end by the year-end, has entered a painstaking verification process as one of South Korean presidential hopefuls.

According to a Realmeter survey released on Monday, Ban reclaimed the top spot in presidential polls for the first time in eight weeks at 23.3 percent, slightly higher than 23.1 percent of Moon Jae-in, former head of the largest opposition Minjoo Party.

Ban has never officially declared his run for president in home country, but has long been seen as the last remaining hope for conservative voters as there is no distinguished contender found from the conservative bloc.

Ban's press conference in New York last week with South Korean journalists triggered local media speculation that he indicated a candidacy in the next presidential election that is forecast to be held earlier than scheduled after the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.

The indication forced Ban to enter an early verification procedure. The career diplomat, who served as top South Korean diplomat from 2004 to 2006 under late President Roh Moo-hyun, has what political analysts claim is lack of experience in the domestic political scene as his weakest point.

Some regards the inexperience as the strong point of Ban not being tarnished by the corrupt political system, but others cite it as his shortage in capability to overcome attacks from both political rivals and media outlets.

Over the weekend, local weekly magazine Sisa Journal reported that Ban took bribes worth 200,000 U.S. dollars in 2005 as the South Korean foreign minister and 30,000 U.S. dollars in 2007 as the UN chief from a South Korean businessman, citing multiple unidentified sources.

Ban's spokesman sent an unusual press release to South Korean journalists, saying the Sisa Journal report was "completely false and groundless" and that the Ban side will demand apology and the deletion of the article, loca media reports showed.

The magazine on Monday raised a suspicion about corruption involving Ban's son, while reminding readers of the suspected secret relationship between Ban and Sung Wan-jong, a South Korean businessman who killed himself in April 2015 after leaving the name list of heavyweight politicians and the amounts next to the names, which were estimated to be bribes given to them, as a suicide note.

Ruling and opposition parties showed different reactions to the report according to respective political interests.

The opposition bloc raised the need for probe by prosecutor, while conservative politicians tried to protect Ban from the attacks.

The biggest opposition Minjoo Party's spokesman told a press briefing that Ban is required to go through a harsh verification process as the country must not allow "the second President Park Geun-hye" to appear in history.

Calling Ban "slippery eel," the spokesman said the UN chief should voluntarily announce persuasive explanations about suspicions, including the bribery allegation reported by Sisa Journal, suspected relationship with Sung Wan-jong and his nephew's fraud case.

Ban is called "slippery eel" especially by the Minjoo Party lawmakers as he visited late President Roh Moo-hyun's grave to pay respects over two and a half years after Roh committed suicide in May 2009.

Under the Roh administration, Ban served as South Korea's foreign minister and the late president is reported to have actively campaigned for Ban to become the first South Korean to be elected as the UN chief.

Even when he belatedly visited the Roh's grave, he reportedly requested his visit unknown to local media outlets under the conservative government of former President Lee Myung-bak.

Ban had been close to President Park Geun-hye and the ruling Saenuri Party as seen in his seven meetings with Park during her four-day trip to New York in September 2015.

However, the close relationship seems to have been broken up since the presidential scandal erupted in late October. He said earlier this month that "trust was betrayed" when talking about the scandal, according to local media reports.

Park Jie-won, floor leader of the minor opposition People's Party, showed a delicate difference in reacting to the suspected bribery scandal involving Ban given that his party has been trying to scout him as one of contenders in the party's presidential primary.

The floor leader told reporters that if Ban's explanations are not persuasive, prosecutors should naturally look into the case, but he noted that groundless revelations are not desirable for the clean presidential race.

The ruling Saenuri Party, from which scores of anti-President Park faction members plan to bolt and create a new conservative party in late January, sought to defend Ban from political attacks amid the rising factional strife. Both the anti- and pro-Park factions anticipated Ban's taking their sides.

The Saenuri Party, which is being controlled by the pro-Park faction, said Ban is the pride of the Republic of Korea (ROK), while the anti-Park conservatives urged the opposition bloc to stop "groundless" political attacks.

Whether the bribery allegations would negatively influence Ban's approval rating remains to be seen as the recent presidential poll is the result before the Sisa Journal report's publication.

South Korean voters had overlooked pointed criticisms on his job as the UN secretary general, including the worst UN chief in history, as simply being elected as the top UN post is regarded here as a great success.

However, people in South Korea might have been much stricter in assessing moral qualifications of their leader as they greatly learned from the scandal of President Park. Enditem