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 South Korea's president Park a cultist?

The late religious leader Choi Tae-min befriended a traumatised Park Geun-hye after the 1974 assassination of her mother - whom he said had appeared to him in a dream. Park treated him as a mentor.

 

Wednesday, 02 November, 2016

South China Morning Post

 

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

The question has been plaguing 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 rumoured 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 organise 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.

Choi Tae-min who was married six times is rumoured 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 US Embassy in Korea reported to its government in 2007 that “Rumours 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 rumour 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 criticised for its bungled efforts to save the passengers.

 

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2042329/south-koreas-president-park-cultist