This really shows how fed up the Korean people are with President Park that the Korean left was able to get far more people to this weekend’s rally than what they were able to get to attend the anti-US beef protests in 2008:
Protesters stage a candlelight rally on a thoroughfare in downtown Seoul on Nov. 12, 2016, as they take part in an anti-government rally to demand President Park Geun-hye resign over an influence-peddling scandal implicating her longtime close friend Choi Soon-sil. In the background is Mount Bukak, at the foot of which the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae is located. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Seoul on Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday, in numbers not seen in decades, for the latest massive rally to demand President Park Geun-hye’s resignation over the growing scandal involving her confidante.
Over 1 million people joined the candlelight rally at Gwanghwamun Plaza in downtown Seoul as of 7:30 p.m., according to organizers. Police said 260,000 people gathered, which surpasses the 170,000 they had originally expected.
It is the largest rally to be held in South Korea this century to date, comparable to one that took place in 1987. Over 1 million Koreans took the streets at that time, leading the then Chun Doo-hwan military regime to accept their calls to adopt a direct presidential election system.
The previous record was set in June 2008 when 80,000 people, based on police calculations, turned out for a rally in Seoul against the government decision to resume U.S. beef imports. Organizers then put the number at 700,000.
Police said they deployed some 25,000 officers in riot gear on Saturday to prevent potential violence.
Major streets near Gwanghwamun were packed with citizens — men and women, young and old — holding banners that said “Step down Park Geun-hye!” and chanting slogans against the current administration.
Three opposition parties joined the rally, along with some potential presidential hopefuls, including Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon of the Democratic Party. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but it appears that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is the one on the Korean left trying to best position himself as their standard bearer if Park does in fact resign.
The Korean left has finally found a cause that they can rally masses of Koreans around after sniffing around for the past 8 years since the anti-US beef crisis for another anti-government cause to rally Koreans behind:
South Korea’s deputy prime minister on Friday pleaded for a peaceful demonstration as hundreds of thousands of people are expected to join an anti-government protest Saturday, amid rising public anger over President Park Geun-hye’s corruption scandal.
Lee Joon-sik, education minister and deputy prime minister for social affairs, released a statement ahead of the rally that may draw the largest number of participants this millennium.
Police expect 170,000 protesters to join the rally, involving 1,500 civic groups, while the organizers put the number between 500,000 and 1 million.
“The government is concerned that the rally might turn into a massive violent incident and hinder the opportunity (for people) to soundly voice their opinions,” Lee said in the statement.
“We are well aware that our people are disappointed about the latest scandal, and that they are worried about the operation of state affairs,” he said. “The government is putting utmost efforts to run the country and to lead our society in the right direction.” [Yonhap]
Her office is claiming this is libel against the President, but even if she did have a procedure done is it illegal for the President to have cosmetic surgery? Every time I hear these accusations I wonder what these people expect Park to do when the tragedy happened, drive to Cholla-do and jump into the water and rescue all the students herself?
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Friday denied as “groundless” allegations that President Park Geun-hye received plastic surgery during a 2014 ferry disaster.
Despite Cheong Wa Dae’s repeated denials, allegations have continued to dog Park that she was absent from her office for some seven hours during the sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16, which left more than 300 passengers, mostly young students, dead or missing.
Presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk stressed that “malicious” reports on the allegations constitute “grave” libel.
“The continuing allegations that Park underwent plastic surgery on the day the ferry Sewol sank are totally groundless rumors,” he told reporters, stressing that the president herself reconfirmed that the allegations were unfounded. [Yonhap]
More video from last night's protest in Seoul against president Park Geun-hye. Even bigger protests expected next weekend, local media says. pic.twitter.com/SRzueNMeIt
Thousands now marching in Seoul, calling for president to resign. Biggest Korean demonstration since 2008 beef protests. About 43,000 here. pic.twitter.com/JCriIL02QV
When you go to UC-Berkley I guess everyone is supposed to find something to protest, even if the protest means nothing to the vast majority of Americans; I did get a laugh out of the below sign though:
Korean students at the University of California, Berkeley, are furious at the political scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.
Thirty Korean students from the U.S. school on Tuesday denounced Park and her administration for not taking full responsibility for the deepening democratic crisis.
They are the first Korean students studying at American universities to hold a protest rally over the scandal.
The students read a statement in Korean and English that said: “As students of Korean heritage, we are furious to find out about the recent political scandal known as ‘Park-Choi Gate.’ To restore democracy in South Korea, we demand President Park, her administration and her party assume full responsibility.
“We are furious. We, as South Koreans, are furious to witness such a collection of criminal events taking place in a democratic country.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I have to wonder if they are concerned about “a collection of criminal events in a democratic country” have they been holding any protests against Hillary Clinton who’s passing of classified information over insecure email may not have been to a Shaman, but is the same issue, which also includes the issue of improper donations to each President’s respective foundations which is also both being investigated.
With this decision South Korea effectively has two Presidents, one that handles domestic affairs and one for international affairs:
South Korea’s prime minister nominee Kim Byong-joon speaks with reporters in Seoul on Nov. 2, 2016. (Yonhap)
Prime Minister-designate Kim Byong-joon, if approved by parliament, will take control of domestic affairs, presidential aides said Wednesday, indicating President Park Geun-hye will take a back seat in running the country.
Their remarks presaged the introduction of a power-sharing governance structure in which the president takes charge of external affairs such as defense and foreign policy, with the premier calling all the shots on internal matters.
In a move to assuage public outrage over an influence-peddling scandal involving her close confidante, Park nominated Kim, policy advisor to late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, and two Cabinet ministers. But opposition parties immediately called on her to cancel what they called “unilateral” nominations.
“(The designation of Kim) means that (Park) will virtually take a back seat (in running the country),” a source told Yonhap News Agency, declining to be named. “Nominee Kim will be the chief executive in charge of managing internal affairs.”
After completing a personnel overhaul of her secretariat, Park is expected to publicly explain her decision to delegate part of her executive power to the new prime minister, a source said.
“As soon as President Park openly confirms the authority of Prime Minister-designate Kim, it is fair to say we will have two presidents,” the official said over the phone. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but of course the opposition parties are not happy about this hand over of power because they likely want to drag out this scandal as long as possible.
Ask A Korean has a great post that really summarizes why Koreans so used to political corruption and scandals are so shocked by the revelations coming out of the Choi Soon-sil mess:
But the English language coverage of this scandal is missing something. The newspapers do have most of the facts, which they recount diligently. But they fail to fully account for the Korean public’s stunned disbelief. Although the scale of the corruption here is significant, Koreans have seen much, much worse. Not long ago, Korean people have seen Chun Doo-hwan, the former president/dictator, made off with nearly $1 billion, and this was back in the mid-1980s when the money was worth more than $4 billion in today’s dollars. Even the democratically elected presidents of Korea–every single one of them–suffered from corruption charges. Lee Myung-bak, the immediate predecessor to Park, saw his older brother (himself a National Assemblyman) go to prison over bribery. Lee’s controversial Four Rivers Project, which cost nearly $20 billion, was widely seen as a massive graft project to push government funding to his cronies who were operating construction companies.
For better or worse (mostly worse,) Korean people have come to expect corruption from their presidents. So why is this one by Park Geun-hye causing such a strong reaction? It is not because Korean people discovered that Park was corrupt; it is because they discovered Park was irrationally corrupt. Koreans are not being dismayed at the scale of the corruption; they are shocked to see what the scale of the corruption signifies.
Park Geun-hye’s corruption scandal revolves around a central question: why would the president risk her administration for Choi Soon-sil? In fact, one of Park’s selling points as the presidential candidate was that she was less likely to be corrupt because she had no family. Her parents–former dictator Park Chung-hee and his wife Yuk Yeong-su–were dead, and she was estranged from her sister and brother. This argument had a modicum of plausibility, since all the previous president’s corruption involved their family in some way. (Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung had issues with their sons; Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak, their brothers.)
But the lack of family did not stop Park Geun-hye from being corrupt, because she apparently had to give money to Choi Soon-sil. But why did Park Geun-hye, the president, even bother with Choi Soon-sil, a nobody? To answer this question, we must look back into modern Korean history to trace the relationship between Park and Choi.
I guess it was only a matter of time before some sex scandal became part of the whole Choi Soon-shil mess in South Korea:
Ko Young-tae
The investigation by the prosecution on the influence-peddling scandal surrounding Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s confidant, shed light on Choi’s clandestine relationship with a host bar worker.
Ko Young-tae, 40, had voluntarily turned up at the prosecutor’s office for questioning late Thursday after entering the country earlier in the day. After a 40-hour prosecutorial investigation over how confidential documents including the President’s speeches reached Choi, he returned home around noon Saturday but was summoned again Sunday.
No details about the interrogation are available.
Ko is suspected of managing The Blue K and Widec Sports _ paper companies Choi set up in Korea and Germany allegedly to funnel money away from the Mir and K-Sports foundations.
Little is known about Ko.
He is a former member of the national saber team, winning a gold medal at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.
Being through with sports, Ko worked at well-known host bars in Gangnam, southern Seoul, according to reports and witnesses. A host bar is an establishment where female customers are served by male hosts who engage in conversation as well as sometimes barter for sexual services. The two are believed to have met and become close at one such host bar, around 2006.
“Ko made a lot of money with his good looks,” said an anonymous man who introduced himself as Ko’s coworker at the bar during Kim Hyun-jung’s “NEWS SHOW” on Christian Broadcasting Service (CBS) Radio, Friday.
“I assume that Choi was one of Ko’s close customers as they are on friendly terms with each other despite the 20-year age gap between them,” he said. Choi is 60 years old, and the friendly terms despite a two-decade age difference can indicate an intimate relationship, according to reports. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but like the Anthony Weiner mess causing ripples in the US Presidential election, the tablet found in the trash by cable news channel JTBC that contained the edited Presidential speeches may have belonged to Ko. If so this means that Ko may have been privy to classified information without a security clearance. What a mess.
