Park Geun-hye was inaugurated in February 2013. She is the eighteenth President of South Korea and is the eldest child of South Korea's stratocratic third President, Park Chung-hee. She was the first woman to be elected South Korean president, and to be elected as a head of state in the modern history of Northeast Asia. Over the years, however, her reputation was marred by her incompetency of handling the "Sewol" ferry disaster, and later a major scandal, leading to her impeachment in December 2016. The corruption scandal involving Choi Soon-sil quickly blew up after reports from multiple news organizations (the most notable of which was JTBC) in 2016, nationwide protests ensued on a weekly basis, with participant count hitting a maximum of over 2.3 million (as reported by the protesters). These protests turned out to be the biggest series of mass protests in Korean history. The protests continued even after the Congress voted on Park's impeachment. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn acted as President of South Korea pending completion of investigations into the actions of Park Geun-hye, and in the absence of any intervening election. The impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court on 10 March 2017, ending Park's presidency and forcing her out of office.