Word: roh
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...Roh's biggest headache: a corruption scandal that is particularly embarrassing, given his campaign pledge to end dirty politics and his crusade to curb shady dealings among the country's powerful conglomerates. Two of Roh's closest aides are on trial for allegedly taking bribes from now defunct Nara Merchant Bank. Last week, prosecutors said they will summon former presidential secretary Choi Do Sul for questioning in a widening political-finance scandal. (It was the allegations against Choi, who resigned in August, that prompted Roh's surprise plea on Friday for the people's trust.) Prosecutors suspect Choi collected...
...Roh himself has not been implicated in any wrongdoing in the Choi case (the Blue House did not respond to repeated requests from TIME for comment). But with blood in the water, Roh's conservative enemies in the Grand National Party (GNP) have been on the attack. In late September, they blocked Roh's nominee for the country's top auditor post and passed a no-confidence motion against Home Affairs Minister Kim Doo Gwan, who was dismissed last month. Lately, they've used a series of annual legislative hearings on government affairs to air allegations that Roh illegally...
...Compounding Roh's problems is his increasing political isolation, which leaves him vulnerable to attack. On Sept. 29 he quit the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), ending a testy relationship with party bosses. Roh, who is now temporarily without political affiliation, is expected to join a new party formed recently by 42 renegade MDP and GNP lawmakers. That group, tentatively called the United New Party for Participatory Citizens, hopes that Roh's reformist credentials will help it win seats in the 273-member legislature during next April's parliamentary elections, possibly enough of them to form a majority coalition to battle...
...members are furious over the split with Roh and have vowed to stop the new vanguard from scoring big at the ballot box. With his own popularity in free fall, analysts say Roh could wind up leading a minority party, his presidency paralyzed by a conservative opposition and a vengeful MDP. "He could remain as a lame-duck President," says Ahn Chung Si, a political scientist at Seoul National University. "If that doesn't work out, he may have to step down...
...doesn't help that Roh's unusual candor has at times made him appear to be an insecure commander in chief. After his troubled first 100 days in office, he told a national TV audience he was under so much pressure that "I feel like I can't do my job as President. I feel a sense of crisis." Hardly words to inspire confidence, but public self-flagellation seems to be a Roh habit: in 1994 he authored a widely read book in which he apologized for beating his wife. Though the presidency is a bully pulpit...