Lee Jae-oh, one of President Lee Myung-bak's closest confidants, said Wednesday that he will resign as chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) to run in the July 28 parliamentary by-elections.
"I'm truly sorry to announce my departure (from the ACRC). I feel more burdened as I am leaving this post for my personal political purposes," Lee Jae-oh said in an address to commission officials.
"I wish everybody would understand my position, as well as my turbulent path ahead."
According to his aides, Lee is to hold a news conference in Seoul on Thursday to formally announce his candidacy for next month's by-elections, in which eight parliamentary seats will be at stake.
The 65-year-old former three-term lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party left politics after suffering a humiliating defeat to Moon Kook-hyun, then leader of the minor opposition Creative Korea Party, in Seoul's Eunpyeong B district in the 2008 general elections.
The Eunpyeong B district in northwestern Seoul has been vacant since Moon was stripped of his seat last year after being convicted in a bribery
scandal.
Lee, who served as chief of Lee Myung-bak's presidential campaign in 2007, took office as ACRC head last September after returning home from a one-year stay in the U.S. and China.