South Korean President Park Geun-Hye replaced her Prime Minister and Finance Minister on Wednesday, as she scrambled to contain a damaging scandal over a close friend accused of meddling in state affairs.
The top-level reshuffle, which also saw a new Public Safety Minister, was the latest attempt to appease growing public anger with the President and her administration.
Ms. Park has been engulfed in a political storm over allegations that she allowed long-time friend Choi Soon-Sil, who holds no political position, to vet her speeches and have a voice in policy decisions — including Cabinet appointments.
Ms. Choi is currently being detained and questioned by prosecutors over her links to Ms. Park and other allegations of influence-peddling and embezzlement.
A spokesman at the Seoul Prosecutors Office said a formal request had been made on Wednesday to a local court to issue an arrest warrant for Ms. Choi on charges of fraud and abuse of power.
The fraud relates to allegations that Ms. Choi — who is already in emergency detention — used her friendship with Ms. Park to strongarm companies like Samsung into donating large sums to non-profit foundations Ms. Choi set up and used for her personal gain.
‘Abuse of power’
The spokesman said the “abuse of power” charge — usually restricted to government officials — was based on allegations that Ms. Choi worked with one of Ms. Park's top presidential aides, Ahn Jong-Beom, to secure the corporate donations.
Mr. Ahn, who was forced to resign at the weekend, presented himself for questioning by prosecutors earlier on Wednesday.
A presidential spokesman said Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn had been replaced “in connection with the current situation.”
The new Premier was named as Kim Byong-Joon, a former top aide to the late liberal President Roh Moo-Hyun.
The Prime Minister is a largely symbolic post in South Korea, where power is firmly concentrated in the presidency.
It is the only Cabinet post requiring parliamentary approval. Opposition parties said the reshuffle was a smokescreen and suggested they would block Mr. Kim's nomination.
“People demanded that the President get rid of the Choi Soon-Sil-controlled Cabinet, but this is just a second Choi Soon-Sil Cabinet,” a spokesman for the main Opposition, Democratic Party said.
The media has portrayed the 60-year-old Ms. Choi as a Rasputin-like figure, who wielded an unhealthy influence over Ms. Park that continued after her presidential election victory in December 2012.
Popularity plunge
Suggestions that she interfered in government policy and was given access to classified documents have exposed Ms. Park to public anger and ridicule and, with just over a year left in office, seen her approval ratings plunge into the single digits.
On Tuesday a man rammed an excavator into the building where Ms. Choi was being questioned by prosecutors, saying he wanted “to help Choi die”.
Ms. Choi is the daughter of late religious leader Choi Tae-Min, who was married six times, had multiple pseudonyms and set up his own cult-like group known as the Church of Eternal Life.
He befriended a traumatised Ms. Park after the 1974 assassination of her mother — whom he said had appeared to him in a dream. Ms. Park treated him as a mentor and subsequently formed a close bond with his daughter.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ms. Choi Soon-Sil, who has denied any criminal wrongdoing, was seen entering the Seoul Prosecutors' Office for a third day of questioning.
The YTN news channel showed Ms. Choi, her face covered with a surgical mask and a dark coat over her prison outfit, disembarking from a bus that brought her from the prison where she had spent a second night in custody.
The scandal has triggered a media frenzy with fresh reports — many of them highly speculative and unsubstantiated — emerging every day, tying Ms. Choi and some of her extended family members to more alleged malpractices.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday they were also investigating reports that Samsung gave around two million euros to a business Ms. Choi had set up in Germany.
A Samsung spokesman said the company would “actively cooperate” with any investigation.
S.Korea prosecutors seek arrest
South Korean prosecutors requested an arrest warrant for a longtime friend of President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday over allegations of influence-peddling and other activities that have triggered a huge political scandal that threatens Park’s leadership.
With Ms. Park’s approval rating nosediving, some Opposition politicians have called for her resignation though none has taken any concrete action to prepare for her impeachment largely out of worries about public backlash. The latest public surveys put Ms. Park’s approval rating at about 10 per cent, the lowest since her inauguration in February 2013, and that showed about half of respondents think Ms. Park should resign or be impeached by the National Assembly.
Last week Ms. Park acknowledged Choi Soon-sil had edited some of her speeches and provided public relations help, despite having no official government position. South Korean media speculate Ms. Choi likely had an access to sensitive information and played a much larger role in government affairs.
After two days questioning Ms. Choi, a Seoul prosecutors’ office on Wednesday asked the Seoul Central District Court to approve an arrest warrant for her, according to court spokesman Shin Jae-hwan. He said the court will likely determine whether to approve the arrest warrant by Friday morning.
Prosecutors accused Ms. Choi of abuse of authority and attempted fraud when they requested her arrest warrant, Mr. Shin said without elaborating.
It wasn’t still clear whether and how much influence Ms. Choi had on Ms. Park’s state affairs. South Korean media reported some of the documents transferred to Ms. Choi included confidential information like secret military talks with North Korea. One TV station aired footage showing Ms. Choi picking up the clothes Ms. Park would wear.
Ms. Choi has been close to Ms. Park since Ms. Choi’s father, the leader of a religious cult, gained Ms. Park’s trust by reportedly convincing her that he could communicate with her assassinated mother. Ms. Choi’s father denied that in a 1990 media interview.
