South Korean police detained a man who yesterday rammed a large excavator into a gate near the office where prosecutors were questioning a woman at the center of a scandal that threatens the country’s president.
The attack with heavy construction equipment on the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office building in Seoul is part of a frenzy of emotion in South Korea over the woman, Choi Soon-sil, whom prosecutors have detained as they examine whether she used her close ties to South Korean President Park Geun-hye to pull government strings from the shadows and amass an illicit fortune.
Choi, 60, yesterday was held for a second day after being detained late on Monday to answer allegations of exerting inappropriate influence in state affairs.
Photo: Reuters
Worried that she might be a flight risk and could destroy evidence, prosecutors placed her under emergency detention without a warrant on Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported. Under local law, a suspect can be held without a warrant for up to 48 hours.
Prosecutors planned to file a court request for an arrest warrant today, Yonhap and other media said, citing a prosecution official.
Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment.
Choi arrived at the prosecutor’s office yesterday morning in handcuffs and a surgical mask and wearing a dark coat, escorted by correctional officers.
Although Choi was being questioned at another location, a man used an excavator to smash the front entrance of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office building, injuring a security guard, in an apparent act of protest against Choi. He was arrested by police.
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 detained man was identified only by his surname, Jeong.
As she arrived for questioning on Monday, Choi, using a common expression of deep repentance in South Korea, said: “I committed a sin that deserves death.”
Last week, amid intense speculation, Park acknowledged that 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.
Prosecutors are trying to determine the scope of access Choi had and whether she was given sensitive presidential documents.
Prosecutors have asked eight banks for documents related to Choi’s financial transactions, Yonhap reported yesterday, citing unnamed financial industry officials.
The scandal has resonated with South Koreans in a way that past corruption allegations have not.
Some of this has to do with Park, who has long been criticized for an aloof manner and for relying on only a few longtime confidantes.
That she might have been outsourcing sensitive decisions to someone outside of government, and someone connected with a murky, lurid backstory, has incensed many.
Choi told the 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.
The president last week said that she had given Choi access to speech drafts early in her term and apologized for causing concern among the public.
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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS