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South Korea row: man rams into gate near building where Choi Soon-sil questioned
Choi Soon-sil held overnight as scandal threatens to engulf President Park Geun-hye
(35 minutes later)
A South Korean man rammed a large excavator into a gate near the office where prosecutors questioned a woman at the centre of the scandal threatening the country’s president. The woman, Choi Soon-sil, had said she “deserves death” and the excavator driver said he “came here to help her die”.
The woman at the centre of a scandal that has plunged the South Korean presidency into crisis was held for a second day on Tuesday after being detained overnight to answer allegations of exerting inappropriate influence in state affairs.
The attack on a government building is part of a frenzy of emotion in South Korea over Choi, who has been arrested on suspicion of using her close ties to President Park Geun-hye to pull government strings and amass an illicit fortune.
Prosecutors have said they are investigating whether Choi Soon-sil used her friendship with President Park Geun-hye to gain access to classified documents that enabled her to influence government matters and benefited personally through non-profit foundations.
Choi was swarmed on Monday by hundreds of journalists and protesters as she tried to enter the prosecution office. The cult leader’s daughter with a decades-long connection to Park was nearly knocked off her feet several times as the crowd closed in on her.
The growing scandal has sparked public anger and sent Park’s approval rating to a record low, with thousands of protesters gathered in Seoul on Saturday night calling for her to step down. Park accepted the resignations of eight of her top aides over the weekend.
Protesters screamed for her arrest and Park’s resignation; one angry person reportedly tried to enter the building with a bucket full of animal excrement; and Choi, 60, lost a Prada shoe in the scrum.
Choi, 60, arrived at the prosecutor’s office on Tuesday morning in handcuffs and a surgical mask and wearing a dark coat, escorted by correctional officers. A prosecution official and her lawyer said she had been detained late on Monday.
Images were shared showing the shoe and the word “Soonderella”, merging Choi’s name with fairytale girl who leaves behind a glass slipper.
Although Choi was being questioned at another location, a man used a heavy construction excavator to smash the front entrance of the supreme prosecutors’ office building in Seoul, injuring a security guard, in an apparent act of protest against Choi. He was arrested by police.
“Please forgive me,” Choi said on Monday through tears inside the Seoul prosecutor’s building. Using a common expression of deep repentance, she added: “I committed a sin that deserves death.”
According to Han Jeung-sub, a senior official at the Seocho police station, the 45-year-old man told police: “Choi Soon-sil said she had committed a crime she deserves to die for, so I came here to help her die.”
The man accused of running his big yellow excavator into the prosecution office later told officials that “since Choi Soon-sil said she committed a sin that deserves death, I came here to help her die”. He was detained and identified by police as a 45-year-old with the surname Jeong.
Prosecutors have asked eight banks for documents related to Choi’s financial transactions, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed financial industry officials.
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 Choi may be a flight risk and could destroy evidence, prosecutors placed her under emergency detention without a warrant late on Monday, Yonhap reported. Under local law, a suspect can be held without a warrant for up to 48 hours.
Some lawmakers and citizens have called for Park’s resignation or impeachment and thousands of people have protested in the streets.
Prosecutors planned to file a court request for an arrest warrant on Wednesday, Yonhap and other media said, citing a prosecution official. Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
Thousands of South Koreans rallied in Seoul on Saturday night demanding Park’s resignation.
Choi told South Korea’s Segye Ilbo newspaper last week that she received drafts of Park’s speeches after Park’s election victory but denied she had access to other official material, or that she influenced state affairs or benefited financially.
Last week, amid intense speculation, Park acknowledged Choi had edited some of her speeches and provided public relations help. Widespread reports have said Choi had a larger role in government affairs despite having no official ties to the administration.
Park said last week she had given Choi access to speech drafts early in her term and apologised for causing concern among the public.
Prosecutors are trying to determine the scope of access Choi had and whether she was given sensitive presidential documents. Choi has previously said she helped Park but didn’t know if she was seeing confidential information.
Choi was being held at the Seoul Detention Center, where the single cells for high-profile inmates are equipped with floor heating, a television, a folding mattress and toilet, according to media reports.
Other reports have contained allegations she misused money from non-profit organisations after pressuring businesses to donate to them.
Choi had returned to South Korea on Sunday from Germany via London under intense pressure to answer the allegations against her.
Park is in the fourth year of a five-year term and the crisis threatens to complicate policymaking during the lame-duck period that typically sets in toward the end of South Korea’s single-term presidency. Park has fired some of her closest aides to try to contain the fallout.
Park, 64, and Choi have known each other for decades, and the president said in a televised apology last week that her friend had helped her through difficult times.
Choi has been close to Park since Choi’s father, the leader of a religious cult, gained Park’s trust by reportedly convincing her that he could communicate with her assassinated mother. Choi’s father denied this in a 1990 media interview.
Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, led South Korea for 18 years after seizing power in a military coup in 1961. Park Geun-hye served as acting first lady after her mother was killed by an assassin trying to shoot her father, who was himself murdered by his disgruntled spy chief in 1979.
The scandal has resonated with South Koreans in a way that past corruption allegations have not.
Park is in the fourth year of a five-year term and the crisis threatens to complicate policymaking during the lame-duck period that typically sets in towards the end of South Korea’s single-term presidency. The scandal has weighed on the South Korean currency and stocks, as investors fret about political uncertainty, with the won falling 0.9% last week while stocks slipped 0.7%.
Some of this has to do with Park Geun-hye, who has long been criticised 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, lurid backstory, has incensed many.
Choi begged forgiveness when she arrived to meet prosecutors on Monday.
Worried that Choi may be a flight risk and could destroy evidence, prosecutors on Monday night placed her under emergency detention without a warrant, said the Yonhap news agency, citing a prosecution official.
She was taken to a Seoul detention facility, Yonhap said.
Prosecutors and Choi’s lawyer were not immediately available for comment early on Tuesday morning.
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.
