SEOUL: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun apologized on Friday for the latest scandal to hit his government, saying he would seek renewed support from the public before next year's parliamentary election.

At an unscheduled appearance before reporters, Roh said he felt a shared responsibility for the involvement of a close aide in a political funding scandal linked to the leading SK Group.

"The truth will be made clear after investigations, but I cannot pretend as if I don't know at all," the 57-year-old president said in televised comments.

"Regardless of the results from the investigations, I will ask for the people's renewed backing over the accumulated mistrust."

Roh did not say how he intended to shore up support. But he suggested that a referendum was unlikely and said his country had no clear system for seeking a fresh public mandate.

With the cabinet due to debate the question on Saturday, analysts said options included a referendum, a vote in parliament, or letting April's general election serve as the litmus test.

Yonsei University politics professor Kim Woo-sang said a referendum would be costly and divisive and a confidence vote would be suicidal in the opposition-controlled legislature.

"The best choice he could probably make is re-evaluating through the general election results," Kim said.

Financial markets ignored the latest in a series of unscripted remarks by Roh, whose only government post before he took office in February was a short spell as fisheries minister.

In May, exasperated at a truckers' strike, Roh declared in a speech: "I feel incompetent as president and a sense of crisis that I will not be able to perform my presidential duties."

The former human rights lawyer has seen his reformist credentials tarnished by a number of scandals involving former aides and has watched his approval ratings plummet to around 25 per cent.

The latest row involves Choi Do-sul, a former aide named by prosecutors as having received funds from the scandal-tainted SK Group before last December's presidential election.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 10/11/2003 page8)