SEOUL, July 26 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun decided to accept the resignation of South Korea's ambassador to the United States Hong Seok-hyun, who expressed intention to step down one day earlier, according to Roh's spokesman Kim Man-soo on Tuesday.

    Roh, however, will allow Hong to continue his job for the time being before officially accepting his resignation, the spokesman said in a news release of the Presidential Office.

    "The timing of the acceptance of his resignation will depend on the settlement of his job as the ambassador to the United States,"said Kim.

    Hong made a phone call from Washington to Chief of Staff of the South Korean Presidential Office Kim Woo-sik on Monday night, expressing his intention to resign, according to Kim.

    Hong's resignation came after local political parties and civic groups requested him to step down for alleged involvement in a slush fund scandal.

    MBC, a major local broadcasting company, released parts of an eavesdropped conversation in which Hong allegedly discussed with a senior Samsung Group official to donate slush fund to candidate ofthe Grand National Party (GNP) Lee Hoi-chang in the 1997 presidential election.

    Hong was president of JoongAng Daily, one of three most influential newspapers in South Korea, at that time. He took the office as South Korean ambassador to the United States five months ago.

    But Lee was defeated by Kim Dae-jung, candidate of the National Congress for New Politics which later turned to the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP).

    The taped conversation, allegedly made by a team from the nation's top intelligence agency in 1997, was leaked to the media last Thursday.

    Both ruling and opposition political parties urged Hong to resign to take responsibility for the scandal. Enditem