South Korean President Park Geun-hye has had four tough years in office, but nothing in that tenure prepared her for the scandal that has rocked her presidency in the last two weeks. A confidante of Park, Choi Soon-sil, is accused of being given access to state secrets and influencing state policy, as well as exploiting that relationship for personal benefit. The furor that erupted is not likely to topple Park, but it will create a vacuum at the apex of government in Seoul and may well render the president a lame duck.
Choi is an old friend of Park; the two women's fathers were friends as well, with one U.S. embassy cable describing Choi senior, a pastor who devised his own religion that some consider a cult, as the "Korean Rasputin." Park acknowledged in a newspaper interview nearly a decade ago that Choi was a source of emotional support after her parents died. Throughout Park's political career, the younger Choi has been at her side, sometimes even traveling overseas with her. Since Park entered the Blue House, Choi was rumored to wield considerable power — there were charges that she received detailed "Presidential report packets" on an almost daily basis and held regular meetings on government-related topics — although there was never any proof to back up the allegations.
That proof was discovered late last month, when a small Seoul media outlet found a computer in Choi's office that contained hundreds of sensitive documents, some related to national security. The trove included 44 speeches by Park, with file dates earlier than the date the address was given, and with changes in red that correspond to the speeches as delivered. In other words, the evidence appears to confirm that Choi saw and edited the president's speeches before they were given and her changes were in the final version.