The first big story I covered as a young correspondent in South Korea was a corruption scandal. Two former presidents were found guilty of, among other things, amassing fortunes with payoffs from the country's major business groups, called chaebols. That was 1996.
So it's dismaying to write — 20 years later, as a somewhat older correspondent — about yet another South Korean presidential scandal. Embattled President Park Geun-hye left her fate in the hands of parliament on Tuesday, after hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets to call for her resignation. A close confidant of Park allegedly abused her relationship with the president to extract tens of millions from the country's chaebols and businessmen. Prosecutors claim that Park herself may have been an accomplice in the scheme.
The more things change in Korean politics, the more they apparently don't. The same can't be said of Korea's society and economy, however. That helps explain the ferocity of public outrage against Park (whose approval ratings have dipped to an infinitesimal 4 percent) — and should be a warning to whoever succeeds her.