Park cries during public appearance

Fire, loathing in ex-stronghold of president

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec 1, (Agencies): Battered by massive protests and an impeachment push, South Korea’s president cried Thursday during her first public appearance among her citizens since a huge political scandal exploded in October, as police arrested a man accused of setting fire to her dictator father’s birthplace in a nearby city.

President Park Geun-hye’s visit to a rural market came as opponents in parliament squabble over whether to impeach her.

Police said they arrested a 48-yearold man who told investigators he used paint thinner to set fire to the birthplace of Park’s late father on Thursday because he was angry over her refusal to step down immediately over the scandal involving a confidant accused of influence peddling and extortion.

A memorial hall for Park’s parents, ex-President Park Chung-hee and Yook Young-soo, was nearly burned down. The hall is a popular tourist attraction. The suspect was previously convicted of setting fire to the birthplace of another former president, Roh Tae-woo, in 2012, according to police.

Park didn’t immediately comment publicly on the arson. Earlier Thursday, she visited a market in the nearby city of Daegu where hundreds of shops had been destroyed by a previous fire.

Daegu is Park’s political home turf where she was elected as a national lawmaker four times before becoming president in 2013.

Local TV showed dozens of people at the market shouting “Park Geunhye! Park Geun-hye!” and using cellphones to photograph her as she walked through the fire-ravaged shops. One middle-aged woman wiped away tears. Near the market, though, dozens of anti-Park citizens staged rallies calling for her ouster, according to media reports.

“Merchants (here) supported me whenever I had difficulties and I’m really sorry,” Park said during her visit, according to her office. “I agonized a lot over whether I should come here in the current situation.”

Park cried after returning to her car, her office said, citing presidential security staff who traveled with her.

On Tuesday, Park said she would step down if parliament arranges a safe transfer of power, drawing fierce criticism from main opposition parties that described her overture as a tactic to buy time that would allow her to survive the scandal.

Park’s offer appears to have caused cracks among dissenters in her ruling party who earlier supported her

Rosa said.

The militants, Rashid Kilala and Jiaher Guinar, belonged to a small Muslim militant group called Ansar Al-khilafa Philippines. impeachment. A group of anti-Park lawmakers is now saying they won’t join an impeachment drive if Park resigns in April and helps ensure a stable power transfer until a new president takes office following a presidential by-election.

A meeting between leaders of the main opposition parties on Thursday ended without any major breakthrough. They differ over whether they should push for Park’s impeachment this week or delay it.

Help

Much of the hesitation over Park’s impeachment is because the opposition does not have enough lawmakers to pass an impeachment in parliament, and they would need help from dissenters in Park’s ruling Saenuri Party.

Passage of an impeachment motion requires at least 200 votes in the 300-member National Assembly, but the three opposition parties and antiPark independent lawmakers have a total of 172 seats.

If impeached, Park’s presidential powers would be suspended until the Constitutional Court rules on her fate. The court would have 180 days to deliberate.

Park has denied accusations by prosecutors that she colluded in the criminal activities of her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil, who, despite having no official role in government, allegedly had a say in policy decisions and exploited her presidential ties to bully companies into giving millions of dollars to businesses Choi controlled.

Choi and two of Park’s former advisers have been detained and indicted on charges including extortion and leaking confidential information.

Choi is a daughter of a cult leader who served as Park’s personal mentor after her mother’s assassination in 1974. Park’s father was gunned down by his spy chief in 1979 following an 18-year rule.

Hours after Park offered to step down over a corruption scandal that has left her struggling for political survival, a fire destroyed a sprawling century-old market in her hometown, just blocks from where she was born.

Shop-owners who gathered at the traditional market after Wednesday’s fire said they were badly hit economically, but also felt betrayed by Park, once proudly claimed as “a daughter of Daegu”.

The city of 2.5 million, 240 km (150 miles) southeast of Seoul, is also where her father, assassinated president Park Chung-hee, went to school and was a

After failing to set off the bomb, which was made from an 81mm mortar round, the two decided to leave the explosive in a trash bin near the US Embassy but stronghold of power for South Korea’s premier political family. The elder Park, seen as the builder of modern South Korea, took over after a coup in 1961 and ruled until he was shot and killed by his spy chief in 1979.

“Most of us are resentful of her. We wish she would decisively step down and we can have reform and this country would change,” said Park Kyung-sook, 41, who ran a dumpling store for 20 years that was destroyed in the fire.

“This is Daegu. President Park Chung-hee did such a great job, so we thought his legacy would be carried on and she would do well. The people of Daegu really believed in her,” said Park, who is not related to the family of two presidents.

Park Geun-hye represented a district on the outskirts of Daegu for 12 years in parliament before she was elected president in 2012.

“We had believed in her,” said Ji Mi-jeong, 51, who has run a store at the market for 20 years. “Many people have turned against her. If we had 100 people who used to believe in her, 95 percent of them have turned against her.”

Referring to the fire, Lee Dae-ho, a 60-year-old labourer in Daegu, said: “Maybe it’s the curse of the Daegu people, timing wise, because she made that announcement (offering to step down).”

Park’s popularity plunged to 4 percent in a poll released last week, a record low for a South Korean president.

The bitter mood contrasts with 12 years ago, when Park, as interim conservative leader, rescued her battered party ahead of a parliamentary election and salvaged more seats than expected, even though it lost its majority.

At the time, before upgrades modernised Seomun market and live chickens and dogs were still sold alongside herbal medicines, voters in Daegu had been almost uniformly enthusiastic about the second-generation politician.

“Who has done more for Daegu than Park Chung-hee?” an elderly merchant had said in 2004. “The daughter is bound to be more or less the same.”

By 2008, Park had reversed her party’s fortunes and it returned to power. She herself was elected president in 2012 with a decisive 52 percent of the vote in a six-way race, including 80 percent in Daegu.

Park’s popularity was damaged in the aftermath of a ferry disaster in April, 2014 that claimed the lives of more than 300 people, most of them school children.

again failed to set it off. (AP)

Filipinos protest Marcos burial:

Thousands of Filipino protesters returned Wednesday to the site of a 1986 revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos, this time to condemn his burial at a heroes’ cemetery.

Police said at least 3,000 people gathered at the “People Power” monument along the main EDSA highway in metropolitan Manila, chanting “Dig him up”. Protesters held up pro-democracy placards, including one that read, “Keep calm and democracy will die”.

Millions gathered three decades ago at the site just outside the main military and police camps in a largely peaceful uprising to oust Marcos, ending a presidency marked by massive corruption and human rights violations.

Wednesday’s protest was the latest in a growing political storm following the Nov 18 burial, which was allowed by President Rodrigo Duterte and upheld by the Supreme Court amid protests by anti-Marcos groups.

The rally speakers included Maria Serena Diokno, who resigned Tuesday as head of the government’s historical commission to protest the burial. (AP)