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South Korea's Prime Minister nominee Moon Chang-keuk has been under rising pressures to withdraw his candidacy for his past pro-Japanese comments, which some critics claimed glorified the Japanese colonial rule.
Both ruling and opposition parties impose pressures on Moon to withdraw the nomination and the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae decided to delay presenting the parliament with a motion to seek Moon's confirmation hearing.
Rep. Suh Chung-won, the seven-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenury Party and close confidant to President Park Geun-hye, told reporters Wednesday that it would be better for Moon not to give a burden to everyone for the sake of the party, people and the government, calling for his resignation.
Rep. Kim Han-gil, a co-chief of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, said in the parliamentary building that the nomination of such ridiculous person was "an insult" to people and the history, calling on Moon to step down from the nomination for the country's No.2 leadership.
Moon, a former chief editorial writer at the conservative JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, was named by President Park on June 10 to replace the incumbent Prime Minister Chung Hong-won who has submitted resignation to assume responsibility for the deadly ferry sinking disaster that occurred in mid-April and left more than 300 people dead or missing.
Since the nomination, Moon has been under harsh criticism for his past comments. In his speech at a local church in 2011, Moon described the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of Korea and the subsequent division into the two Koreas as "God's will."
The remarks outraged many South Koreans who still have a deep resentment against Japan for its reluctance to repent its past atrocities.
Moon also made provocative comments on the comfort women, or a euphemism for Korean women coerced into sex slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army during the World War .The nominee reportedly said during a university class earlier this year that South Korea may not necessarily need to demand apology from Japan for the comfort women issue.
Kim Bok-dong, 88, one of the former comfort women still alive, staged a one-man demonstration Tuesday in front of the presidential office, calling for Moon's withdrawal of the nomination.
Amid growing controversy over his comments, Moon held a press conference Sunday, apologizing for his remarks. Regarding the "God 's will," he said it was a religious perception that depicts the hardship as a blessing in disguise.
Another controversy emerged as Moon said in his 2008 collection of columns that Japan would not be a threat to the Dokdo islets, a main subject of territorial disputes between Seoul and Tokyo. The group of rocky outcroppings, lying halfway between the two countries, is called Takeshima in Japan.
The column reportedly said the late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun exaggerated the Dokdo issue related to Japan, which had no realistic threat, to "shelter" the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that had a real threat.
Earlier in the day, Moon told reporters that even every schoolboy knows the fact the Dokdo is South Korea's own territory, trying to appease the growing public anger.
Amid the worsening public opinion, Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement that President Park will review the submission to the parliament of the motions for seeking parliamentary hearings for newly named ministers and the prime minister.
Park will come back to Seoul on Saturday after completing the six-day visit to Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Park's approval rating plunged to 42.7 percent Tuesday from 51. 1 percent last Wednesday, a day after Moon was nominated to the prime minister post, according to the local pollster Realmeter. The rating continued to fall after Moon's nomination.
President Park suffered a setback after Ahn Dai-hee, her former choice for prime minister, offered to resign as a candidate in late May amid criticism that the former Supreme Court justice received exorbitant salary as a lawyer at a law firm.
