Korean President Park Geun-hye, facing retirement in a year, is on the verge of impeachment.
Choi Soon-sil, the close friend of Park had been deeply involved in state affairs at the top level. This means that the controversy over the existence of a ‘secret heavyweight’ turned out to be true.
The ‘Choi Soon-sil gate’ has continued to shock the whole country after Korean cable TV channel JTBC revealed on Monday that Choi’s old computer hard drive contained about 200 classified documents that Park had sent her.
On Tuesday, the day after the media report, Park made a public apology, admitting that her speeches and various documents on state affairs were sent to Choi.
Choi also has allegations involving the Mir and K-Sports foundations that she gained sponsorships from conglomerates worth 75 million AU dollars, and also been given preferential treatment to win contracts for government-sponsored events.
She is also the daughter of Park’s mentor Choi Tae-min and ex-wife of Park’s former secretary Jeong Yoon-hoe.
Choi has issued an apology to the public for being involved in state affairs in an interview with local newspaper Segye-ilbo on Wednesday.
In the interview in Germany, she confirmed that she had received and edited presidential speeches and other confidential documents. However, she claimed that she did not know the speeches passed to her during the early stages of the administration were confidential.
She apologised to the public for causing chaos in society and said sorry to President Park, claiming she only helped because of her loyalty and faithfulness to her friend.
Moreover, University students have been denouncing Park over the scandal by issuing statements.
On Wednesday, students at Ewha Womans University, which is alleged to grant various favours to Choi’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra firstly spoke up.
Also at Sogang University, Park’s alma mater, students demanded that she “no longer disgrace the name of the school.”
More universities including Seoul National University and Sungkunkwan University also denounced the scandal and demanded Park step down.