Myung-bak accepts senior political affairs secretary resignation

President Lee Myung-bak on Saturday accepted a senior aide's offer to resign over allegations of his involvement in a vote-buying scandal in 2008. According to South Korean news agency (Yonhap), Kim Hyo-jae, the president's senior political affairs secretary, offered to resign on Friday following news reports that prosecutors may summon him in their investigation of allegations that he had bribed fellow Grand National Party lawmakers before he was elected as party leader in 2008. Prosecutors said they have secured testimony that Kim's former aide delivered envelopes of cash to lawmakers before a vote to choose a new party chief that year, indicating Kim may have played a key role in the bribery scandal. "President Lee accepted Kim's resignation offer," the presidential official said, but he made no special comment on this.(QNA)