The reform agenda of Lee Myung-bak, the South Korean president, is under threat after his main rival within the ruling conservative party threatened to oppose one of his legislative priorities.

Park Geun-hye , who vied with Mr Lee to be the presidential nominee of the Grand National Party in 2007, said that in spite of her personal agreement with the idea, she could not support Mr Lee’s proposal to liberalise rules on the ownership of broadcast media to allow more involvement by industrial conglomerates and newspaper owners – given vociferous opposition to the plan by the parliamentary opposition.