South Korea's Park denies following cult as scandal continues

·         

·        November 4, 2016

BBC News 

·        From the section Asia

The South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, has publicly denied falling victim to a religious cult as scandal threatens to engulf her leadership.

Appearing close to tears in a televised address, she apologised for allowing a long-standing friend inappropriate access to government policy-making.

She agreed to be questioned over the scandal but did not offer to resign.

Choi Soon-sil is suspected of using their friendship to solicit donations to a non-profit fund she controlled.

Ms Choi is in detention facing charges of fraud and abuse of power.

The main opposition party said the president's apology lacked sincerity and it called on Ms Park to step back from state affairs.

Scuffles broke out between police and demonstrators demanding Ms Park's resignation in central Seoul on Friday.

'Absolutely not true'

Ms Choi, a long-time friend of Ms Park's, is the daughter of Choi Tae-min, a shadowy quasi-religious leader who was closely linked to Ms Park's father, then-president Park Chung-hee.

On Friday, Ms Park went on TV to deny allowing cultish rituals to be held in the presidential palace.

"There have been claims that I fell for a religious cult or had [shamanist rituals] performed in the Blue House, but I would like to clarify that those are absolutely not true," the president said.

She said she took sole responsibility for access to government documents and was willing to be investigated.

She had, she said, "put too much faith in a personal relationship and didn't look carefully at what was happening".

Anyone found to have done wrong would be punished, she said, and "if necessary, I'm determined to let prosecutors investigate me and accept an investigation by an independent counsel too".

The scandal has left Ms Park with an approval rating of just 5%.

She has already replaced her prime minster, reshuffled her cabinet and dismissed several aides, but there are growing calls for her resignation or impeachment.

Choo Mi-ae, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said she did not believe the apology was genuine and called on her to accept a new prime minister recommended by parliament.

Ms Park became her country's first female president when she was elected in a close-run contest in December 2012.

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37869993

 

Is Park Geun-hye a cultist?

By Yi Whan-woo
Korea Times
November 4, 2016

Is President Park Geun-hye a follower of a religious cult called Yongsaenggyo, or Church of Eternal Life?

The question has been haunting Koreans as evidence mounts concerning Park’s mysterious relationship with her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil.

Choi, 60, a daughter of the late cult leader Choi Tae-min, is suspected of pulling strings in state affairs and illegally profiting since Park took office in February 2013.

Choi’s alleged exploitation of her relationship with the President is fueling speculation that Park, who is supposedly the country’s most powerful person, has been under the spell of her cultist confidant after becoming a follower of the religious cult.

Choi Tae-min, who died in 1994 at age 82, is believed to have founded Yongsaenggyo in the 1970s by combining differing beliefs in Buddhism, Christianity and an indigenous Korean religion named Cheondoism that rose in the early 20th century.

He had previously been a Buddhist monk and also a Roman Catholic convert.

Calling himself the equivalent of a modern-day Buddha or Dangun, the legendary founder of ancient Korean kingdom Gojoseon, Choi Tae-min claimed that every man was God in the beginning and should strive to win salvation to become God again and live eternally.

The obscure cult leader initially met Park soon after her mother Yuk Young-soo was assassinated in 1974 and she assumed the duties of first lady at age 22 for her father, then-military dictator Park Chung Hee, according to political sources.

It is rumored that he approached Park by telling her that her mother appeared in his dreams and offering to aid her with her mother’s support.

Choi Tae-min, who befriended Park despite the 40-year-old age difference, served as Park’s mentor until his death.

He helped Park to organize a pro-government volunteer group called Movement for a New Mind, for which then-university student Choi Soon-sil served as its youth leader.

Choi Tae-min, also a former police officer, was from a poor family. But he accumulated an enormous fortune serving as Park’s mentor and bequeathed his wealth to his children, according to the sources.

They also said Choi Soon-sil, succeeded her father as cult leader.

Swirling rumors

Choi Tae-min who was married six times is rumored to have had an improper relationship with Park.

Kim Jae-gyu, then-Korean spy chief who assassinated Park Chung Hee in 1979, cited the senior Park’s “failure to prevent Choi Tae-min’s corrupt activities and keep him away from his daughter,” as a reason for assassinating his boss.

In 1990, Park’s younger sister Geun-ryong and brother Ji-man filed a petition to then-President Roh Tae-woo concerning a dispute with Choi Tae-min over a non-profit foundation that was set up to commemorate their late parents.

Geun-ryong and Ji-man claimed that the pastor had been manipulating their eldest sister, exploiting the foundation for illicit gains and trying to alienate them.

The President is widely known for keeping her distance from her siblings for years.

Released by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Embassy in Korea reported to its government in 2007 that “Rumors are rife that the late pastor had complete control over Park’s body and soul during her formative years.” It also called Choi Tae-min a “Korean Rasputin.”

A new rumor recently erupted that Park’s possible relation to Yongsaenggyo was behind the sinking of the Sewol ferry in April 2014. The country’s worst maritime disaster left over 300 passengers, mostly middle school students, dead or missing. The Park government was criticized for its bungled efforts to save the people.

The de-facto owner of the ferry was Yoo Byung-eun, also a cult leader who was believed to have connections with Chung Yoon-hoi, ex-husband of Choi Soon-sil.

Rumors circulated that the people on the ferry were sacrificed in line with the cult’s creed and that Park was deliberately negligent in saving the passengers.

Chung and Choi Soon-sil divorced following a scandal in late 2014 that Chung, who served as Park’s aide before she was elected President, meddled in state affairs despite having no security clearance.

It is rumored that Choi Soon-sil was displeased with Chung’s alleged attempt to wield influence over the President without her approval.

http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=217297

South Korea's president is hardly the only leader to turn to mystics and shamans

The Washington Post

By Ishaan Tharoor 

November 2, 2016 

South Korean President Park Geun-hye is fighting for her political life in the face of mounting protests over the inappropriate conduct of a friend and close confidante, Choi Soon-sil. Media reports and police investigations suggest that Choi used her access to and influence over the president to embezzle money and handle classified documents, charges that she denies.

"Despite having no official position and no security clearance," details my colleague Anna Fifield, "Choi seems to have advised Park on everything from her wardrobe to speeches about the dream of reunification with North Korea."

The two women have been friends for decades, as Fifield wrote: "Choi is the daughter of the late Choi Tae-min, a kind of shaman-fortune teller who was close to Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, the military dictator who ruled South Korea during the 1960s and 1970s."

Choi's father, who founded a religious cult that melds Christianity and Buddhism and other practices, was likened in a leaked U.S. State Department cable to a "Korean Rasputin." After Park's mother was assassinated, the elder Choi reportedly conveyed the mother's messages to the younger Park from the afterlife.

His daughter is alleged to have formed a group of "eight fairies" — unofficial advisers who, like Choi, won all sorts of access to the president. As the investigation continues, the specter of corruption may doom Park's presidency. Her term ends next year. But for all the alleged misdeeds, Park is hardly the only world leader in the modern era to confide in those who dabble in the occult.

As long as lords held sway over their subjects, seers and mendicants have been on hand, whispering encouragement to power. Before the modern era, the fate of whole kingdoms could rest on the augurs of soothsayers and the prophecies of astrologers. Such figures lingered into the 20th century: Most infamously, Grigoriy Rasputin, a wandering peasant and self-proclaimed holy man, infiltrated the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas II, and wielded unusual power over him and his wife until other irked royals arranged for his assassination.

Rasputin's name became shorthand for an adviser shrouded in mystery and bent on various self-serving schemes.

Until its dissolution in the past decade, the Nepali monarchy maintained a whole cadre of court astrologers and advisers, who, among other things, persuaded the country's ruling royals to conduct affairs of state only on auspicious days. In 2008, the ousted King Gyanendra was compelled to consult astrologers during his house hunt after it became clear that he would have to leave the sprawling royal palace in Kathmandu.

Across Asia, people in power, both in business and politics, lean on the advice of an array of mystics. In South Korea, myriad prominent executives employ fortune tellers to help determine their professional and personal affairs.

"Shamans, known locally as mudangs, offer guidance with 'pungsu,' a concept similar to feng shui that considers the human relationship to nature and physical space," explained Korean writer Young-ha Kim. "The position of a building in relation to mountains and rivers is seen as important, and a shaman may be consulted about the location of a house or a grave."

This practice finds its echoes elsewhere in East Asia, in rural China and among the gleaming skyscrapers of Hong Kong.

The former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, a fearsome leader who critics accused of turning into a would-be autocrat, had his own astrologer, Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena, who supposedly predicted Rajapaksa's earlier electoral victories in 2005 and 2010 and persuaded the Sri Lankan leader to announce snap elections in 2015.

When Rajapaksa lost, his astrologer suggested that the defeat had been written in the stars.

“If I did not tell him he was going to win, he would have been psychologically shattered. His defeat would have been much worse,” Abeygunawardena told Agence France-Presse after the election. “In this case, the opponent’s horoscope is more powerful than that of Our Sir.”

In parts of West Africa, widespread local belief in juju — or a kind of voodoo, or magic — surfaces periodically in scandals and political intrigues. In 2014, a senior adviser to Sierra Leone's president summoned top traditional healers after finding a "hex" made of horns, cowrie shells, monkey hair and other bits of animal matter by her house. In 2008, the former president of Nigeria accused a political rival of scheming with an Islamic seer over the circumstances of his death.

Of course, while it's easy to cherry pick such examples from far-flung corners of the world, one shouldn't forget the long tradition of spirituality infusing the White House — and the religious men who found favor and access, as well. Evangelical priests such as the Rev. Billy Graham, for example, had a hold on successive administrations.

 

Ishaan Tharoor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor at TIME, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.

  Follow @ishaantharoor

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/02/south-koreas-president-is-hardly-the-only-leader-to-turn-to-mystics-and-shamans/?tid=sm_tw&utm_campaign=082bd47cec-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_11_03&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Pew%20Research%20Center

 

 

 

Is Park Geun-hye a cultist?

Yi Whan-woo
Korea Times
2016-11-01

Is President Park Geun-hye a follower of a religious cult called Yongsaenggyo, or the Church of Eternal Life?

The question has been haunting Koreans as evidence mounts concerning Park's mysterious relationship with her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil.

Choi, 60, a daughter of the late cult leader Choi Tae-min, is suspected of pulling strings in state affairs and illegally profiting since Park took office in February 2013.

Choi's alleged exploitation of her relationship with the President is fueling speculation that Park, who is supposedly the country's most powerful person, has been under the spell of her cultist confidant after becoming a follower of the religious cult.

Choi Tae-min, who died in 1994 at age 82, is believed to have founded Yongsaenggyo in the 1970s by combining differing beliefs in Buddhism, Christianity and the indigenous Korean religion Cheondoism that arose in the early 20th century.

He had previously been a Buddhist monk and also a Roman Catholic convert.

Calling himself the equivalent of a modern-day Buddha or Dangun, the legendary founder of the ancient Korean kingdom of Gojoseon, Choi Tae-min claimed that every man was God in the beginning and should strive to win salvation to become God again and live eternally.

The obscure cult leader initially met Park soon after her mother Yuk Young-soo was assassinated in 1974 and she assumed the duties of first lady at age 22 for her father, the then-military dictator Park Chung Hee, according to political sources.

It is rumored that he approached Park by telling her that her mother appeared in his dreams and offered to help her.

Choi Tae-min, who befriended Park despite the 40-year-old age difference, served as Park's mentor until his death.

He helped Park to organize a pro-government volunteer group called Movement for a New Mind, for which then-university student Choi Soon-sil served as youth leader.

Choi Tae-min, also a former police officer, was from a poor family. But he accumulated an enormous fortune serving as Park's mentor and bequeathed his wealth to his children, according to sources.

They also said Choi Soon-sil, succeeded her father as cult leader.

Swirling rumors

Choi Tae-min who was married six times is rumored to have had an improper relationship with Park.

Kim Jae-gyu, the then-Korean spy chief who assassinated Park Chung Hee in 1979, cited the senior Park's "failure to prevent Choi Tae-min's corrupt activities and keep him away from his daughter," as a reason for assassinating his boss.

In 1990, Park's younger sister Geun-ryong and brother Ji-man filed a petition to then-President Roh Tae-woo concerning a dispute with Choi Tae-min over a non-profit foundation that was set up to commemorate their late parents.

Geun-ryong and Ji-man claimed that the pastor had been manipulating their eldest sister, exploiting the foundation for illicit gains and trying to alienate them.

President Park is widely known for keeping her distance from her siblings for years.

Released by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Embassy in Korea reported to its government in 2007 that "Rumors are rife that the late pastor had complete control over Park's body and soul during her formative years." It also called Choi Tae-min a "Korean Rasputin."

A new rumor recently erupted that Park's possible relation to Yongsaenggyo was behind the sinking of the Sewol ferry in April 2014. The country's worst maritime disaster left over 300 passengers, mostly middle school students, dead or missing. The Park government was criticized for its bungled efforts to save the people.

The de-facto owner of the ferry was Yoo Byung-eun, also a cult leader who was believed to have connections with Chung Yoon-hoi, the ex-husband of Choi Soon-sil.

Rumors circulated that the people on the ferry were sacrificed in line with the cult's creed and that Park was deliberately negligent in saving the passengers.

Chung and Choi Soon-sil divorced following a scandal in late 2014 when Chung, who served as Park's aide before she was elected President, meddled in state affairs despite having no security clearance.

It is rumored that Choi Soon-sil was displeased with Chung's alleged attempt to wield influence over the President without her approval.





https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/11/116_217297.html

Pressure mounts on Korean president

Bangkok Post
October 29,  2016

SEOUL: Pressure mounted Saturday on beleaguered South Korean President Park Geun-hye over a personal and political scandal, as prosecutors raided the homes of senior aides and thousands joined a protest in central Seoul demanding her resignation.

With just over a year left in her term, Park's presidency has suddenly unravelled over shocking revelations of how she allowed a close personal friend, with no official position, to meddle in affairs of state.

Over the past week, the public has been captivated by sensational media reports regarding Choi Soon-sil, the 60-year-old daughter of a shadowy religious leader and a one-time Park mentor.

Invoking a lurid back-story of religious cults, shamanist rituals and corruption, the reports have portrayed Choi as a Rasputin-like figure whose influence over Park extended to vetting her presidential speeches and advising on key appointments and policy issues.

On Saturday morning,  news agency said.

The raids came hours before thousands took to the streets of central Seoul in a candle-lit rally, denouncing Choi as a dangerous charlatan and calling on Park to step down.

Teenagers in school uniforms, college students, labour activists, and middle-aged couples with young children joined the rally, carrying banners and chanting "step down Park Geun-hye".

"I came here today to show how angry I am," said Lee Ji-hu, a 33-year-old housewife from Gimpo, northwest of Seoul, accompanied by her husband and two children in strollers.

"How can a leader have a shaman, or someone linked to a religious cult as a secret adviser and let her handle state affairs and squander taxpayers' money like that?" Lee asked.

"I feel so ashamed. ... I can't let our country where my children will live be corrupted like this," she added.

Police put the crowd at around 8,000, while organisers said 20,000 people turned out. Similar protests also took place in several provincial cities, including the country's second largest city, Busan.

Choi is being formally investigated for using her ties to Park to strongarm major conglomerates into donating funds to two non-profit foundations she set up.

But the real focus of public anger has been the extent to which Park -- the daughter of the late military dictator Park Chung-hee -- apparently allowed herself to be controlled by a such a figure.

The head of the main opposition Minjoo Party said it was like discovering you were being ruled by a "terrifying theocracy".

Choi is the daughter of the late Choi Tae-min, who married six times, had multiple pseudonyms and set up his own religious group known as the Church of Eternal Life.

Choi Tae-min first befriended a traumatised Park after the 1974 assassination of her mother, who he said had appeared to him in a dream, asking him to help her daughter.

Park Geun-hye subsequently formed a close bond with Choi Soon-sil that endured after Choi Tae-min's death in 1994.

Choi Soon-sil's ex-husband served as a top aide to Park until her presidential election victory in 2012.

Choi left the country for Germany in early September as reports of her alleged influence-peddling began to emerge.

Her lawyer has said she is well aware of the gravity of the situation and was willing to return home "to be punished if she did anything wrong".

Prosecutors have detained two people close to Choi for questioning, including one who told reporters that Choi had been behaving as Park's de-facto regent.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1122277/pressure-mounts-on-park

Swirling Scandal Involving Shamanistic Cult Threatens S. Korean President

October 29, 2016

NPR

ELISE HU

 

Tens of thousands demonstrated in cities across South Korea on Saturday, demanding President Park Geun-hye step down from office. Her approval rating has hit an unprecedented low of 14 percent and Park's ordered all 10 of her senior aides to resign, following revelations an unelected, unappointed confidant was receiving advance copies and altering dozens of confidential policy speeches. They have led to charges that the friend is a secret "puppet master" and the real power behind "the throne."

President Park apologized to the country in a rare nationally-televised address this week. She said she sought her old friend's opinion only in the early part of her presidency, before her staff was in place.

It goes beyond tinkering with speeches, however. This scandal involves not only tens of millions of dollars and charges of influence-peddling, but of spiritual guides from a "Shamanistic prophet," voices from the dead and — wait for it — dressage, the competitive form of horse-dancing.

Okay. Here it goes.

The old friend of the president's, Choi Soon-sil, also runs two non-profit foundations that prosecutors say boasted of its ties with the president to collect more than $70 million in donations from the country's major conglomerates. Prosecutors opened up an investigation into the foundations in early October, and are seeking Choi, who is accused of siphoning some of those funds for personal use — including to cover equestrian training for her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra. (Choi emerged in Germany over the weekend and denies any wrongdoing.)

Much of the pubilc anger now gripping the nation broke open over Choi's daughter in the first place. Chung, the equestrian, attended the nation's prestigious woman's college, Ewha University. Ewha's president was forced to resign this week as students protested Chung's preferential treatment and shady admission — which seemed to give her extra credit for being a champion dressage competitor. Media began looking closer at the ties between Park and Choi.

And the ties are interesting, indeed. Choi Soon-sil is the daughter of a man the president considered her mentor, Choi Tae-min. He claimed to be a pastor from a tiny pseudo-Christian sect, but a leaked diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy describes him as a 'Rasputin'-like character and his "church" is described by Korean media as more of a "Shamanistic cult." The New York Times explains further:

"Mr. Choi was the founder of an obscure sect called the Church of Eternal Life. He befriended Ms. Park, 40 years his junior, soon after her mother was assassinated in 1974. According to a report by the Korean intelligence agency from the 1970s that was published by a South Korean newsmagazine in 2007, Mr. Choi initially approached Ms. Park by telling her that her mother had appeared in his dreams, asking him to help her.

Mr. Choi was a former police officer who had also been a Buddhist monk and a convert to Roman Catholicism. (He also used seven different names and was married six times by the time he died in 1994 at the age of 82.) He became a mentor to Ms. Park, helping her run a pro-government volunteer group called Movement for a New Mind."

 

The public's beliefs about how much control the Choi family enjoyed over the president, and how much they privately benefited as a result, is putting the president's remaining year in office in serious jeopardy. On the streets of Seoul Saturday, at least 10,000 people showed up to protest, holding signs saying "Park Geun-hye, resign," "How is this a country?" and "We can't raise kids in this country!" (You can watch the protest live in the video below or click here if you can't see the player.)

 

For her part, Park hasn't addressed the matter since her 90-second apology early in the week. But she did call for the en masse resignations of her senior staff late Friday night, and her spokesman is not ruling out changes at the heads of government agencies as part of this reshuffling.

The three major political parties in South Korea, meanwhile, say they will meet with the National Assembly speaker early next week to consider their next moves.

"Opposition parties share the responsibility about state affairs," the ruling party's floor leader, Rep. Chung Jin-suk, said to the Korea Joongang Daily. "Since the administration is hit with the leadership crisis, the National Assembly must act to cope with it."

 

Haeryun Kang contributed to this story.

 

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/montreal/483423/centre-de-la-prevention-de-la-radicalisation-quebec-et-montreal-se-portent-a-la-defense-de-l-organisme

 

Secret advisers, nepotism and even rumours of a murky religious sect: the political scandal that could destroy South Korea's president

James Rothwell
The Telegraph
OCTOBER 29, 2016

Three years ago, she was hailed as South Korea’s saviour after becoming its first female president and adopting a tough stance on the North’s brutal dictator, Kim Jong-un.

But the reputation of President Park Geun-hye lay in tatters  this week  after she was plunged into a murky political scandal involving shadowy advisers, nepotism claims and even whispers of a sinister religious sect.

At the centre of the outcry is Choi Soon-sil, a mysterious female friend of the president who has been unmasked as her secret confidante.

The 60-year-old is said to have influenced Ms Park in private on everything from her wardrobe to her strategy on tackling the North Korean regime.

She is also accused of forming an exclusive clique of unofficial advisers called the “the eight fairies,” who enjoyed extensive access to the president.

Her father, Choi-Tae-Min, was well known in South Korea as the head of a cult-like religious group until his death in 1994.

He referred to himself as the "Future Buddha" and established a sect called the Eternal Life Church. Ms Park has publicly described herself as Catholic.

The elder Choi reportedly enjoyed considerable influence over Ms Park as a young politician, prompting diplomats to refer to him in private as “Korea’s Rasputin.”

A newly released Wikileaks cable from the US embassy in Seoul described him as having “complete control over the body and soul of the president in her formative years” in 2007.

Both women are understood to have met decades ago and formed a close relationship when Ms Choi’s father allegedly helped the future president contact her late mother in the afterlife.

Since then, according to South Korean media reports, the pair have been inseparable – though Ms Choi has never held an official position in the country’s government, nor did she have security clearance.

The disclosure has sparked a tidal wave of anger in South Korea and has led to the country’s once-celebrated leader facing potentially the end of her presidency and even impeachment.

Last Friday she ordered her entire cabinet to resign at the behest of senior party officials after her approval ratings plunged to an historic low of just 17 per cent.

And on Saturday, prosecutors confiscated computers and documents from the homes of a top presidential adviser and two other aides as well as a deputy culture minister.

They also searched offices in the presidential Blue House complex, according to Yonhap News Agency.

A table computer seized during the raid is said to contain documents which show Ms Choi edited a landmark speech the president gave in Germany in 2014 which outlined her unification plans with the North.

Ms Park denies she ever had an improper relationship with Ms Choi.

Ms Choi, who is currently in Germany, says she is too ill to return to Seoul for questioning over the affair.

“I am suffering from a nervous breakdown and I have been diagnosed with heart issues,” she told Segye Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper.

“If I recover, I will ask for forgiveness, and will accept punishment if I did anything wrong,” she added.

The newspaper also reported that Ms Choi had privileged access to sensitive South Korean military intelligence, citing sources close to the president.

Her lawyers say she is co-operating with the investigation and will return to the Korean peninsula when she is able to.

Prosecutors have taken in two of Ms Choi's close aides for questioning, including one who told reporters that she had been behaving as Park's “de facto regent”.

Shin Yool, a professor at Myongji University, told the Washington Post the country is facing its "biggest crisis" since it was founded 70 years ago.

“The president has lost her ability to function as leader," she said.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is said to be delighted by the scandal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/29/secret-advisers-nepotism-and-even-rumours-of-a-murky-religious-s/