Battered S. Korean president accepts PM resignation

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on April 27 accepted the resignation of her prime minister over a widening bribery scandal that has tainted senior members of her faltering administration.

Park was on a four-nation tour of South America when Lee Wan-Koo offered to step down. The decision was confirmed by an official from the president's office hours after her return.
 
Although nominally the second highest official in the country, the prime minister fills a largely ceremonial role in South Korea, where power is concentrated in the presidency.
 
But the post carries symbolic weight and Lee's departure after barely two months in the job is a fresh blow for an increasingly beleaguered Park.
 
Lee's hand was forced by a scandal triggered by the suicide earlier this month of Sung Wan-Jong, the former head of a bankrupt construction company.
 
In the dead man's pocket, investigators found a note that listed the names of eight people -- including Lee and presidential chief of staff Lee Byung-Kee -- alongside numbers that allegedly indicate bribery sums.
 
The suicide came as Sung was about to be questioned by prosecutors over allegations that he created a slush fund with embezzled company money to bribe politicians and government officials.
 
Although Lee had repeatedly protested his innocence, the pressure to step down intensified after the main opposition party said it would seek his formal impeachment.
 
These are turbulent times for President Park, whose approval ratings have yet to recover from the pounding they took in the wake of last year's Sewol ferry disaster.
 
Recent weeks have seen massive anti-government street protests in Seoul by ferry victims' relatives and their...