Daughter of South Korea’s ‘Rasputin’ held in Denmark
THE daughter of Choi Soon-Sil, the woman at the centre of a corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of South Korea’s president, has been arrested in Denmark after months in hiding, Seoul prosecutors said yesterday.
Chung Yoo-Ra, 20, the daughter of the woman dubbed South Korea’s “Rasputin”, is one of the figures in the influence-peddling scandal that sparked massive street protests demanding the removal of President Park Geun-Hye.
Danish police arrested Chung on Sunday night for overstaying her visa, Korean prosecutors said.
They were in talks with authorities there to have her deported to Seoul.
Chung was arrested in the northern town of Aalborg after a tip-off from a Korean journalist, Danish police said.
They want her detained until extradition is decided upon, and said Chung was aware South Korean authorities wanted to talk to her.
She claimed she was in the country in connection with equestrian sports.
Choi, a secret confidante of Park, is accused of using her ties with the president to force top firms including Samsung to “donate” nearly $70-million (R960-million) to non-profit foundations which Choi then used as her personal ATMs.
She is also accused of using her influence to secure her daughter’s admission to an elite Seoul university, with a state probe revealing the school had admitted Chung at the expense of other candidates with better qualifications. The revelation touched a raw nerve in education- obsessed South Korea and prosecutors sought to question Chung over her admission to Ewha Women’s University in 2014.
Park stands accused of colluding with Choi to extract money from the firms and also of letting her meddle in state affairs, including nominating top officials. The president denies all charges against her.
Parliament voted on December 9 to impeach Park over the scandal and her executive powers have been handed to an acting president, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn.
The impeachment case is being considered by the Constitutional Court, but hundreds of thousands of people have joined weekly protests calling for her immediate departure from office.
Choi, daughter of a controversial religious figure who was close to Park until his death in 1994, is awaiting trial on charges including coercion and abuse of power.