Soccer commentator Park blasts Hong Myung-bo for silence before agreeing to testify

Soccer commentator Park Moon-sung has again criticized former South Korea national team head coach Hong Myung-bo after Hong signaled his willingness to appear before a National Assembly hearing.

Park appeared on CBS Radio's "Park Sung-tae's News Show," which aired Wednesday, and said Hong should be prepared to explain and account for his tenure as the team's coach — but added that he should have done so much earlier. "He should have done that beforehand," Park said.

Park pressed further, asking why Hong had not taken either of the two opportunities already available to him to speak directly before the public and the press after the World Cup.

The first came June 29 (Korean Standard Time), after South Korea was eliminated from the group stage, when Hong met reporters at the team's base camp in Guadalajara, Mexico. He read a prepared resignation statement for about two minutes, then stuffed the paper into his pocket and left without taking a single question — drawing widespread anger from fans.

The second came the following day, June 30, when Hong returned to South Korea through Incheon International Airport. He again walked past reporters waiting in the arrivals hall without holding any question-and-answer session.

"It would have been good if he had offered some explanation at either of those moments, but he kept his mouth shut at every opportunity," Park said.

Hong, currently in the United States, conveyed through the Hong Myung-bo Scholarship Foundation on Tuesday that he would attend a National Assembly hearing if one were held. He also said that "protecting the players to the end is also the role of a head coach."

Park also sharply criticized Lee Im-saeng, the former Korea Football Association technical director who led the process of appointing Hong two years ago, after Lee recently took up a post as technical director at Cambodian professional club Nagaworld FC.

Park described Lee's move as an attempt to "evade responsibility" and grouped Lee together with Hong, former KFA president Chung Mong-gyu and former KFA national team performance enhancement committee chair Jung Hae-sung as "four people with a lot of questions that need to be answered."

"Right now two of them — Hong and Lee — have gone abroad, the former president resigned so it's unclear what will happen to him, and Jung Hae-sung's whereabouts are unknown," Park said, expressing his frustration once more.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee is pushing to hold a hearing to examine the process behind Hong's appointment, South Korea's poor showing at the North and Central America World Cup, and the overall management of the Korea Football Association. July 22 is currently the most likely date.