Aide to parliamentary speaker offers resignation over hacking scandal

An aide to the National Assembly speaker has offered his resignation amid allegations of his possible involvement in the hacking attack on the Web site of the country's election watchdog during a key vote in October, the speaker's office said Tuesday. The protocol secretary for Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae faces a police summons following revelations that he drank with a main suspect in the cyber attack on the night before the Oct. 26 hacking that paralyzed the Web site of the National Election Commission for more than two hours during the Oct. 26 local by-elections. The main suspect, who was an aide to a ruling party lawmaker, has already been arrested. The Assembly speaker's secretary, identified only by his surname initial K, submitted his resignation Monday and did not come to work on Tuesday, the speaker's office said. The office said the case is a personal problem and it has no comment to make on the matter. Police said they have requested the secretary appear Tuesday for an interview about the Oct. 25 meeting with the lawmaker's aide, identified only by his family name Kong. But officials said it was unclear if the secretary would comply with the summons. The main opposition Democratic Party has raised suspicions that the crime must have been masterminded by higher-ranked people, claiming that it is hard to believe the low-level aide carried out the plot that required a lot of money to hire hacking professionals. The ruling Grand National Party has said it would fully cooperate with a police probe. The hacking scandal has rocked the already unpopular GNP that has been struggling to regain public confidence after its defeat in the by-election for Seoul mayor. The election was seen as a crucial test of voter sentiment ahead of April's general elections. The scandal has given rise to fresh calls from within the party for leadership changes to revamp the tainted image of the conservative party, with some even going as far as to call for disbanding the party. "The party cannot survive if the situation goes ahead like this," said Rep. Yoo Seong-min, a member of the GNP's Supreme Council. Rep. Nam Kyung-pil, a reformist member, also criticized GNP leader Hong Joon-pyo over his handling of the party, saying that he is looking into "various possibilities." Another Supreme Council member Won Hee-ryong even claimed that a leadership change is not enough and the GNP should be broken up. Including Won, about 10 lawmakers held a meeting and agreed to call for creating a new party. "I already talked about all leadership post holders stepping down en masse and I am always for it," Won said, claiming that if the party is found to have been involved in the hacking scandal at even the slightest level, the party should be broken apart.