D. Political power-based corruption involving the President's intimate associates and aides (1) Temporal scope of the proximity to the implementation of official duties Since Article 65(1) of the Constitution limits the ground for impeachment as arising out of the implementation of 'official duties' in providing 'the President, ... , in the performance of the official duties,' the interpretation of the above provision urges that only certain acts violating the law committed while the President was in the office of the President may constitute the ground for impeachment. Therefore, even those acts committed by the President between the time of election and the time of inauguration do not constitute the ground for impeachment. Although the legal status during this period as the 'presidentelect' pursuant to the Act on Presidential Succession provides the president-elect with certain authority to perform preparatory acts necessary for the succession of the office of the president, such status and authority of the president-elect is fundamentally different from the official duties of the President and an act violating the law committed during this period by the president-elect such as receiving illegal political funds is subject to criminal prosecution. Therefore, there is no basis to adopt a different interpretation concerning the act of violation committed during this period in terms of the ground for impeachment under the Constitution. (2) Reception of illegal political funds concerning the Sun & Moon Group and the presidential election camp The alleged grounds for impeachment in this regard arose out of the facts that occurred prior to the respondent's inauguration as the President on February 25, 2003, and are thus clearly irrelevant to the respondent's performance of official duties as the President. Therefore, such alleged grounds are invalid without further reviewing the facts as to whether the respondent was involved in the reception of such illegal funds. (3) Corruption of the respondent's intimate associates and aides Among the alleged grounds for impeachment in this regard, those based on the facts that occurred after the president's inauguration as President are that Choi Do-sul received 47 million Korean Won from Samsung and others during his office as the General Affairs Secretary - 191 -