{"id":265416,"date":"2016-11-05T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T14:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=265416"},"modified":"2016-11-05T14:00:55","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T14:00:55","slug":"thousands-urge-south-korea-president-to-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=265416","title":{"rendered":"Thousands urge South Korea President to quit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Thousands of South Koreans have taken to the streets of the capital, Seoul, to demand the resignation of President Park Geun-hye over a corruption row.<\/p>\n

A long-time friend, the daughter of a cult leader, is accused of undue influence over the president.<\/p>\n

Choi Soon-Sil is alleged to have pushed businesses to donate millions of dollars to foundations she controlled, helped choose presidential aides, and even picked the president’s clothes.<\/p>\n

Ms Park apologised on TV on Friday.<\/p>\n

Ms Park was close to tears as she addressed the nation, and said the scandal involving her confidante Ms Choi was “all my fault”.<\/p>\n

The president admitted that she had let Ms Choi edit her speeches.<\/p>\n

Ms Choi was arrested on Thursday and charged with fraud and abuse of power.<\/p>\n

Some 40,000 demonstrators were expected to attend the rally in central Seoul, watched over by 20,000 police officers. Water cannon are in evidence on the capital’s streets.<\/p>\n

Organisers say that as many as 100,000 may join the protest.<\/p>\n

Dozens of police buses are parked by City Hall, and near a square which will be closed to stop protesters marching on the Blue House, the president’s official residence.<\/p>\n

\n
\"South
South Korean high school students are blocked by police as they march toward the presidential house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
<\/figure>\n
\n
\"Demonstrators
Tens of thousands have gathered on the streets of Seoul to express their anger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
<\/figure>\n

Smaller protests have taken place every day in recent weeks, as calls grow for Ms Park to step down.<\/p>\n

The president has denied media speculation that she took part in “shamanist rituals” at the Blue House, and promised to accept an investigation into her actions.<\/p>\n

The affair has left Ms Park with an approval rating of just 5%, the lowest ever for a sitting South Korean president.<\/p>\n

The opposition has demanded that she either resign, or accept a prime minister chosen by Parliament as her number two.<\/p>\n

\n
\"South
President Park Geun-hye apologised to the nation in a TV address<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"Lawmakers
Lawmakers from the ruling South Korean Saenuri Party bow in a show of apology at the National Assembly building in Seoul<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n
\u00a0<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
–<\/div>\n
Source: BBC<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of South Koreans have taken to the streets of the capital, Seoul, to demand the resignation of President Park Geun-hye over a corruption row. A long-time friend, the daughter of a cult leader, is accused of undue influence over the president. Choi Soon-Sil is alleged to have pushed businesses to donate millions of dollars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":265418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[2682,1733,13390,4844],"class_list":["post-265416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-president","tag-protests","tag-quit","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/265418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}