Lee Kee-heung, head of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC), speaks at a press conference announcing his bid for a third term as KSOC president in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

As he seeks his third term as head of the national Olympic committee, Lee Kee-heung revealed Monday that a "high-ranking" government official tried to talk him out of the reelection bid.

During a press conference in Seoul where he announced his entry into the race for the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) presidency, Lee confirmed a recent media report that a government figure offered him a position elsewhere in exchange for abandoning his KSOC job.

This proposal came with Lee having been suspended by the sports ministry over allegations of embezzlement and illicit hiring at the top training center for Olympic athletes, among other charges.

Lee insisted the official who made the offer does not work for the sports ministry.

"This person is an extremely high-ranking bureaucrat, someone who works for the top government agency in the country," Lee said, before adding that he would not identify the official.

Lee said he was offered work in a field other than sports but he did not want to do anything outside sports administration because he wanted to stay faithful to sportspeople he had been serving over the years.

Lee also said the government official proposed an owner of a large, family-run conglomerate, or chaebol, as the new KSOC boss, but Lee didn't think that was a good idea because of the demanding nature of the job.

"I said the person is a perfectly fine gentleman but this position was not for a chaebol executive because it is a full-time position," Lee said. "It takes a lot of work to oversee and manage all regional sports bodies around the country and you have to be fully committed to it. I've worked with chaebol chairmen in the past, and I saw firsthand how difficult it was for them to work when politics got involved."

Lee said he himself proposed two candidates as his potential successor, including former National Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee, who is currently head of the organizing committee for the 2027 World University Games in the central Chungcheong provinces.

Lee said Kang never responded to his proposal and the government kept up its effort to remove Lee from office in the meantime.

"Back on Nov. 9, I heard from multiple channels that the government wanted me to step aside because it had three teams ready to push me out of the picture," said Lee, who would be suspended by the ministry two days later. "One was set up to attack me personally, the second team was supposed to make life difficult for the KSOC, and the third team was preparing for the election."

Lee said he decided to run for another term because he felt it was the responsible thing to do with the KSOC under police and prosecution investigation.

"I felt it would be too irresponsible to just leave here as if nothing had happened," he said. "I also decided that I would be admitting to these charges if I chose to simply step aside. I've been pushed into a corner with no room to escape." (Yonhap)