Choi Phil-lip, a confidant of former President Park Chung-hee, resigned Monday as head of a controversial scholarship foundation set up by the late head of state.

Choi had been under pressure to leave his post at the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation, after local media reports last October alleged the foundation of trying to sell its stakes in media companies to use the proceeds to woo voters in a region considered a stronghold for the ruling Saenuri Party during the presidential campaign.

President Park Geun-hye, daughter of Park Chung-hee, ran on the ticket of the Saenuri Party. She was in charge of the foundation from 1994 to 2005.

The younger Park was inaugurated as the country's first female president on Monday.

In his resignation statement, Choi said he had earlier refused to step down because he did not want to become entangled in politics and inadvertently cause trouble.

"Now, I think I've done my job as the head of this foundation," Choi said. "I hope you can all forgive and understand me."

Choi pointed out that two separate audits by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education found the Jeongsu Foundation to be a "transparent and exemplary" body.

"The Jeongsu Foundation is definitely a public-interest foundation set up by President Park Chung-hee some 50 years ago," Choi said. "It has concentrated on providing scholarships to promising and yet underprivileged students in Korea and also to students in China and Vietnam. I hope the foundation will continue to help young students realize their dreams."

Park Chung-hee established the foundation in 1962, a year after he seized power in a military coup. Critics have argued that the foundation came into being only with assets looted from a Busan businessman, Kim Ji-tae, who fell out of favor with the military junta and that these assets must be returned to the businessman's family or taken over by the state.

In February of last year, a Seoul court had rejected requests made by Kim's relatives wanting to reclaim their lost inheritance, but said it was only doing so because the 10-year statute of limitations had already expired.

The court did confirm that Kim, who died in 1982, was forced to surrender his property under pressure from military officers.

During her presidential campaign, Park Geun-hye insisted she no longer had ties to the foundation, though her critics said it remained essentially under her control.

Park had also said attacks on the foundation and its history were politically motivated. (Yonhap News)