21 November 2016
Ahn Jong-beom and Jung Ho-sung are presidential aides who are now being charged for corruption. Choi Soon-sil, was charged earlier. It is alleged that Chung Ho-sung, leaked at least 180 government documents to Choi over three years. The documents included 47 that contained confidential information such as the appointments of ministers.
Choi Soon-sil who was a close friend of the President Park Geun-hye manipulated her and used her influence to extort money from conglomerates.
Police believe that President Park was in complicity with Choi Soon-sil, An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong.
Under the constitution, a president while in office cannot be indicted unless on charges of treason. The opposition Democratic Party and Peoples’ Party have demanded her resignation failing which they will initiate impeachment proceedings against her. People also have taken to the streets demanding her resignation. Opposition parties do not have the two-thirds majority in the National Assembly to impeach the President.
President Park is not likely to resign on her own because she will lose her immunity if she is not in power. She has apologised twice in the recent past. She still has a little more than a year left of her term.
In the meantime, the Parliament has approved a bill to appoint a special prosecutor who will take over the investigations from the state prosecutors and will conduct wider probe over the scandal.
From what the police say we could infer that the President was fully aware of what Choi Soon-sil was doing and that her two aids were passing confidential information to Choi.

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