Family ties strangle South Korean leader

Kim Dae-jung's presidency has been badly damaged

In Korean society the son's fault is believed to be that of his father - a tradition that South Korean President Kim Dae-jung knows only too well.

As President Kim tries to concentrate on the forthcoming World Cup, the country's newspapers are focused firmly on the arrest of his youngest son.

The papers all agree that Kim Hong-gul's detention on Saturday in a bribery case will have a devastating effect on his father's presidency.

The Korea Times describes the impact of Kim Hong-gul's alleged involvement in the scandal as "pouring cold water on his father's last attempt to prop up his sagging presidency".

Lost cause

The paper says that Kim senior's apologies and his promise that his son will be dealt with in the same way as sons of ordinary people will fall on deaf ears.

The leader who loses his moral authority is like a motionless shark in the sea. Nobody fears him

The Korea Times

And any positive aspects of his presidency, including his role in pulling the country out of financial ruin and the development of his "sunshine policy" to improve relations with the North, will be forgotten.

"The leader who loses his moral authority is like a motionless shark in the sea. Nobody fears him."

An editorial in the same paper says that the Hong-gul case may deal the "knock out punch" to Kim Dae-jung's administration.

"The Kim administration has lost its last ounce of innocence," the paper adds.

Shameful tradition

The editorial says the Kim Dae-jung government is no better than the ones that went before it.

There is a long list of South Korea presidential offspring who have fallen foul of the law.

Ex-President Kim Young-sam's son was jailed for corruption

Most recently, in 1997, the son of then President Kim Young-sam was jailed for corruption. This was believed to have paralysed the government in the face of the Asian financial meltdown.

Ironically, President Kim in his first year in office vowed he would "be good at managing my relatives, so the people need not be concerned".

"Republic of Corruption"

An editorial in the Chungang Ilbo, entitled "Burning rage of the people", describes the public's anger and disillusionment over a corruption scandal yet again crippling the country's first family.

There is a mushrooming of corruption from above and it permeates the whole country.

Choson Ilbo

"Why does filthy history repeat itself like this?" the paper asks.

The Choson Ilbo says the country's "imperial presidency" and corruption amongst high-ranking government officials are to blame.

"There is a mushrooming of corruption from above and it permeates the whole country."

President Kim's inability to crack down on this corruption right from the start is the reason that people in the Republic of Korea are living in the "Republic of Corruption", the paper laments.

An editorial in the same paper calls for the prosecution to continue its investigation into the affair despite President Kim's call for a political cease-fire until after the World Cup finals, which South Korea is co-hosting with Japan.

The ruling party "must think of the people before it thinks of the government," the paper says.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.