Prosecutors arrested Park Young-joon, a former vice knowledge and economy minister and key aide to President Lee Myung-bak, for bribery late Monday night.

Seoul Central District Court approved the arrest of Park citing ample evidence supporting the bribery charge against the former official nicknamed the “king’s man,” and the risk of an attempt to destroy evidence or abscond.

But it refused an arrest warrant for Kang Cheol-won, a former Seoul Metropolitan Government official facing the same bribery charge, as the court saw little risk of flight.

Prosecutors suspect Park, 57, of having received about 100 million won ($88,000) in kickbacks from Lee Jeong-bae, a former representative of the construction project named Picity, in 2006 and 2007 in return for his help in getting the project approved by Seoul City.

If convicted, Park faces up to five years in prison or fines of up to 10 million won.

The prosecutors’ investigation into the Picity scandal has gained traction with Park in custody, following the earlier arrest of former Korea Communications Commission chairman Choi See-joong on April 30. Choi is suspected of having accepted about 800 million won from Picity.

Prosecutors have also reportedly found evidence of dubious transactions in 2007 in the bank account of Park’s older brother involving over 1 billion won, and plan to summon the older Park when necessary.

The opposition parties criticized the prosecutors for “scaling back the investigation.”

“While it is applaudable that the prosecutors have both key aides of President Lee now in custody, they should be reminded that their investigation has been limited to a personal act of corruption despite having had leads toward an illegal election fund,” said Park Yong-jin, spokesman for the main opposition Democratic United Party on Tuesday.

Controversy over the 2007 presidential election fund briefly arose last month upon Choi’s comments indicating that he used the money from Picity to conduct opinion polls for President Lee. Choi later retracted his comments and said the money was for personal use.

By Lee Joo-hee (angiely@heraldcorp.com)