Choi Soon-sil: South Korean prosecutors arrest woman at centre of political scandal

Posted

The woman at the centre of a political scandal that has cast the South Korean presidency into crisis has been detained, as locals continue to express their anger over the affair.

Key points: Choi Soon-sil has been detained after being questioned by prosecutors

It has been alleged that she profited from ties to President Park Geun-hye

A man rammed a government office with an excavator to "help [Choi] die"

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Choi Soon-sil used her friendship with President Park Geun-hye to influence state affairs by gaining access to classified documents, and benefited personally through non-profit foundations.

Worried that Ms Choi may be a flight risk and could destroy evidence, prosecutors placed her under emergency detention without a warrant, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

A prosecution official confirmed that she had been arrested and taken to a Seoul detention facility, declining to provide further details.

On Tuesday morning, Ms Choi arrived by prison bus at the prosecutors' office escorted by correctional officers, according to a live broadcast by Yonhap News TV.

Under South Korean law, a suspect can be held under emergency arrest without a warrant for up to 48 hours — a longer detention requires an arrest warrant issued by a court.

In an interview with South Korea's Segye Ilbo newspaper last week, Ms Choi said she received drafts of Ms Park's speeches after her election victory but denied she had access to other official material, or that she influenced state affairs or benefited financially.

Ms Park said last week she had given Ms Choi access to speech drafts early in her term and apologised for causing concern among the public.

Man rams office with excavator to 'help her die'

Meanwhile, South Korean police detained a man who rammed a large excavator into a gate near the office where prosecutors questioned Ms Choi.

Ms Choi had earlier told media that she "committed a sin that deserves death" — a common expression of deep repentance — and the detained man said he "came here to help her die", according to police.

The attack with heavy construction equipment on a Government building is part of a frenzy of emotion in South Korea over the scandal.

Ms Choi, a cult leader's daughter with a decades-long connection to Ms Park, was nearly knocked off her feet several times yesterday as a crowd of protesters and reporters closed in on her.

Protesters screamed for her arrest and Ms Park's resignation, one angry person reportedly tried to enter the building with a bucket full of animal faeces, and Ms Choi lost her shoe in the scrum.

Social media is now awash with images of the discarded black footwear and the word "Soonderella", a combination of parts of Ms Choi's name and the fairy tale character Cinderella, who leaves behind a glass slipper at a ball.

The man detained for the excavator incident was identified as a 45-year-old with the surname Jeong.

It was not known if Ms Choi was at the Seoul office at the time of the ramming, which injured a security guard and damaged the gate and other facilities.

Reuters/AP

Topics: world-politics, law-crime-and-justice, korea-republic-of </s> South Korean President Park Geun-hye's choice for prime minister says Park can be the subject of the ongoing investigation into a snowballing influence-peddling scandal involving her longtime friend.

The comments by Kim Byong-joon Thursday came as opposition lawmakers are stepping up their demands that prosecutors directly investigate Park to get to the bottom of the scandal.

South Korean media speculate Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, pulled government affairs from the shadows and pushed businesses to donate millions of dollars to two foundations that she controlled.

Kim told a televised conference that he thinks it's possible to have Park investigated. He says there are different interpretations of a constitution provision that grants sitting presidents immunity from criminal lawsuits.

But he says the procedures and methods of any such probe of the head of state must be carefully done.

South Korean prosecutors have detained a former senior aide of President Park Geun-hye as they widen their investigations into a snowballing political scandal on whether the president's longtime friend was pulling government strings from the shadows.

Ahn Jong-beom is the second person detained over the scandal that has triggered mounting calls for Park's resignation. Earlier this week, prosecutors detained Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, and requested an arrest warrant for her.

South Korean media speculate Choi, who has no government position, made policy recommendations for Park and pushed businesses to donate millions of dollars to two foundations she controlled.

A Seoul prosecution office said Thursday it has detained Ahn while questioning him over his alleged involvement in extracting $70 million of company donations.

Prosecutors have to determine whether to seek an arrest warrant for Ahn or release him by Friday. </s> South Korean prosecutors have arrested a former aide of President Park Geun-hye considered a central figure to an influence-peddling scandal, Yonhap News Agency said on Friday.

Jeong Ho-seong was arrested on Thursday night suspected of leaking confidential documents to Choi Soon-sil, a long-time friend of Park at the center of the scandal.

South Korean prosecutors did not immediately comment on the report. </s> Ousted South Korean president Park Geun-Hye was arrested in the early hours of Friday, on charges of bribery, abuse of authority, coercion, and leaking government secrets. After a long hearing on Thursday, a court had said, “It is justifiable and necessary to arrest (Park) as key charges were justified and there is risk of evidence being destroyed.”

She was taken to a detention centre near Seoul, AFP reported.

A spokesperson for the Democratic Party’s leading presidential contender Moon Jae-in praised the arrest, calling it the first step to rebuilding a collapsed nation, The Korean Herald reported. Park’s own party, the Liberty Korea Party, however, said her arrest was “truly regrettable”. In a statement, they hoped that such a “painful history” won’t repeat itself.

Park is the first democratically elected leader to be ousted from office in South Korea. On December 9, the South Korean Parliament had impeached her.

The former president was accused of colluding with Choi Soon-sil, a long-time friend and confidante, to extort money in the form of donations from South Korean companies. The money, which was transferred to non-profit foundations controlled by Choi, was allegedly used for personal gains.

Park had also been accused of ordering her aides to leak official state documents to Choi, who has no official position in the South Korean government. There had been large scale protests demanding her removal as president. </s> SEOUL — Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye — who was ousted from office earlier this month — was arrested on Friday.

“Major crimes have been ascertained and there is a concern that the suspect might attempt to destroy evidence,” Judge Kang Bu-young said in a text message to reporters.

“The court recognizes the need, necessity and reasonableness of the suspect’s arrest.”

Prosecutors announced Monday that they were seeking to arrest Park on charges relating to abuse of power, accepting bribes and leaking important information. Park had been held in a temporary detention facility at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office Building ahead of the court’s decision.

Park will be taken to Seoul Detention Center, which is located just outside Seoul and where her confidant Choi Soon-sil and some of the high-profile figures embroiled in an ongoing scandal, including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, have been detained.

“The suspect abused the mighty power and position as president to take bribes from companies and infringed upon the freedom of corporate management and leaked important confidential official information,” the statement from the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office said.

Park has not yet been formally indicted, prosecutors told CNN, and it’s unclear when that will occur.

Park was removed from office on March 10, after South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld a decision to impeach her for alleged corruption.

The former president was accused of helping a confidant raise donations from companies for foundations she had set up.

The scandal dominated the headlines in South Korea and prompted mass protests when it emerged late last year. The controversy centered around Park’s friend and close adviser, Choi Soon-sil, who is alleged to have significant and inappropriate influence over Park. Choi is currently on trial for abuse of power and fraud.

The Constitutional Court’s impeachment ruling stripped Park of her presidential immunity and cleared the way for prosecutors to seek her arrest.

A presidential election will be held on May 9 to choose a new leader. </s> A South Korean protester carries a placard showing images of South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil, top left, who is at the center of a political scandal, during a rally, calling for Park to step down in downtown Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. South Korean prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for the longtime friend of Park on Wednesday over allegations of influence-peddling and other activities that have triggered a huge political scandal that threatens Park's leadership. The placard reads: "Park Geun-hye should step down."

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's president said Tuesday she will allow parliament to choose her prime minister, a major political concession to growing anger as she scrambles to defuse an escalating influence-peddling scandal.

The announcement by Park Geun-hye, who has faced tens of thousands of protesters and an investigation into whether a mysterious confidante manipulated government decisions, could severely curtail her ability to govern in the 15 months she has left in her term.

Park's decision, which came during a meeting Tuesday with National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, means that the liberal candidate for prime minister who she nominated last week as a way to settle growing anger will apparently be replaced. But opposition and ruling party lawmakers must first agree on someone else.

The political tug-of-war over the prime minister, who is typically chosen by the president as a No. 2, comes as opposition lawmakers demand that Park distance herself from domestic affairs because of the scandal involving Park's longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil, who has no official government role.

Park giving up the presidential prerogative to choose a prime minister will further weaken her politically. She already faces terrible approval ratings and calls from the public to step down.

Earlier Tuesday, South Korean prosecutors raided the Seoul office of Samsung Electronics, the nation's largest and most valuable company, in connection with the scandal.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office linked the Samsung raid to an investigation into the scandal but provided no other details. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said investigators were following a suspicion that Samsung gave Choi's daughter illicit financial help.

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Seoul over the weekend, demanding Park's removal from office.

Nam Jeong-su, spokesman of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the more militant of South Korea's two large umbrella union groups, said he expects 150,000 unionists, plus supporters, to gather Saturday and march to the presidential Blue House. </s> SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's embattled president moved to replace her prime minister and two other top officials this morning in a bid to restore public confidence in the wake of a political scandal involving her longtime friend.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye nominated Kim Byong-joon, 62, as prime minister to take over for Hwang Kyo-ahn. Yim Jong-yong, chairman of the nation's Financial Services Commission, was tapped to replace Yoo Il-ho in the top finance role, presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk said at a televised briefing. Park Seung-joo, South Korea's former minister of gender equality and family, was chosen to replace Park In-yong as safety minister.

The reshuffling came as prosecutors are investigating whether a friend of Park Geun-hye's used her ties with the president to pull government strings from the shadows and to push businesses to donate money to foundations she controlled.

Prosecutors are expected to seek an arrest warrant for the friend, Choi Soon-sil, later today. She has been jailed under emergency detention laws.

The Seoul central district prosecutors office has 48 hours from the time she was jailed Tuesday to seek a warrant to formally arrest Choi, who is 60.

"Choi has denied all of the charges against her, and we're concerned that she may destroy evidence," a prosecution official said, according to Yonhap.

Fears of evidence destruction and concerns that a suspect is a flight risk are among the justifications for emergency detention.

"She has fled overseas in the past, and she doesn't have a permanent address in South Korea, making her a flight risk," the official told reporters. "She is also in an extremely unstable psychological state, and it's possible an unexpected event could occur if she is released."

Park acknowledged last week that Choi had edited some of her speeches and provided public relations help. South Korean media speculate that Choi played a much larger role in government affairs.

Kim, the nominee for prime minister, was a former top policy adviser for the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun. The nomination, which requires parliamentary approval, is seen as an effort by the conservative Park to reach out to liberals for bipartisan support after previously firing eight presidential aides.

Thousands of people rallied in Seoul over the weekend, demanding Park's resignation.

Early Tuesday, a 45-year-old man drove an excavator from a town about 150 miles south of Seoul and into the prosecutors office where Choi is being held, destroying the door. He later told police he wanted to "help Choi Soon-sil die, as she said she committed a sin that deserves death," the Yonhap news agency reported.

Park has already long been criticized for an aloof manner and for relying on only a few longtime confidantes. That she may have been outsourcing sensitive decisions to someone outside of government, and someone connected with a murky backstory, has incensed many.

Choi is the daughter of the late Choi Tae-min, a shaman-fortune teller who was close to Park's father, Park Chung-hee, the military dictator who ruled South Korea during the 1960s and 1970s.

Choi has been friends with Park since Choi's father, the leader of a religious cult that incorporated elements of Christianity and Buddhism, gained Park's trust by reportedly convincing her that he could "deliver messages" from her late mother, who was assassinated in 1974. Choi Tae-min denied that in a 1990 media interview.

Park Chung-hee was assassinated by one of his bodyguards in 1979, and Choi Tae-min died in 1994, but the daughters' friendship endured. In her only public statement on the scandal, Park last week said that Choi Soon-sil had helped her through "difficult times."

Information for this article was contributed by Hyung-jin Kim of The Associated Press; by Kanga Kong and Jiyeun Lee of Bloomberg News; and by Anna Fifield of The Washington Post. </s> SEOUL -- South Korean prosecutors have raided the Seoul office of Samsung Electronics in connection with a snowballing influence-peddling scandal involving President Park Geun-hye's longtime confidante.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office says Tuesday's raid was part of investigation into the scandal centering on how much Park's friend Choi Soon-sil meddled in state affairs though she doesn't have any government job.

The prosecutors' office gave no further details. Yonhap news agency says the raid was related to a suspicion that Samsung gave Choi's daughter illicit financial help.

Park visited National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun on Monday to discuss how to defuse a political crisis triggered by the scandal. The results of their meeting weren't immediately known.

Tens of thousands of people rallied in Seoul on Saturday, demanding Park's removal from office. </s> South Korea’s Special Prosecutor’s Office on Monday sought an arrest warrant against Samsung chief Jay Y Lee, who is accused of paying bribes worth millions to President Park Geun-hye’s friend, who is at the centre of an extortion scandal. Jay Lee is also accused of embezzlement and perjury, according to the application for an arrest warrant, Reuters reported.

The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics faces allegations of paying bribes worth 43 billion won (more than Rs 200 crore) to organisations with links to Choi Soon-sil, the president’s long-time friend and confidante. He had allegedly paid bribed to ensure the merger of two company affiliates as well as his control of the family business – he became the de facto head of the Samsung Group after his father was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014.

Spokesman for the prosecution Lee Kyu-chul said that the office had evidence to prove that both Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil had profited from payments made by the Samsung chief. “The special prosecutors’ office, in making this decision to seek an arrest warrant, determined that while the country’s economic conditions are important, upholding justice takes precedence,” he added.

Samsung – South Korea’s largest conglomerate, generating about 17% of the country’s revenue – has denied the accusations: “It is especially hard to accept the special prosecutor’s assertion that there was improper request for a favour related to the merger or succession of control,” the company said in a statement. Shares of Samsung Electronics ended 2.14% lower after the news broke.

The South Korean Parliament had impeached President Park Geun-Hye on December 9, following accusations of colluding with Choi Soon-sil to extort money in the form of donations from South Korean companies. The money, which was transferred to non-profit foundations controlled by Choi Soon-sil, was allegedly used for personal gains. The president also faces accusations of ordering her aides to leak official state documents to her friend, who has no official position in the South Korean government.

The Constitutional Court of South Korea has six months to decide on whether it will uphold the impeachment motion. Till then, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn holds the responsibility of running the country. If the court decides to remove Park Geun-Hye from the position, South Korea will have to elect a new president within 60 days of the ruling.
Choi Soon-sil, the woman at the centre of a South Korean political scandal involving her friend President of Korea Park Geun-hye, is detained for questioning.