South Korea’s Park to accept impeachment vote: Party official

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong said that while President Park Geun-hye had asked him to support cultural and sports-related developments during a one-on-one meeting, there had been no request for financial aid.

Besides South Korean President Park Geun-hye, the biggest casualty of the country’s mushrooming political corruption scandal may be the presidential aspirations of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Despite the evident ambience of both excitement and tension that surrounds the forthcoming parliamentary probe involving chaebols, political analysts expect no major revelations to be brought up during the sessions.

“I am cautious about this since it’s something that was created by the founder chairman and then the current chairman (Lee Kun-hee) but as there are negative perceptions about it, I will abolish it”, he said. His father technically remains company president even though he has been unconscious in a hospital for 2½ years.

Millions of South Koreans have taken to the streets of Seoul and other cities in a series of weekly mass protests demanding Park’s ousting.

Park has denied wrongdoing but has apologized for carelessness in her ties with the friend, Choi Soon-sil. She is refusing to step down.

Tens of lawmakers of the party’s faction, who are not loyal to Park, have agreed to vote for the impeachment, raising possibility for the passage of the bill.

Some admitted that the donations were not exactly voluntary. Huh Chang-soo, chairman of GS Group, said that in South Korea it is hard for business leaders to refuse the government’s requests.

Similar to the U.S. Watergate hearings that forced U.S. President Nixon to resign in 1974, some of the key questions being asked of the Korean corporate heads testifying under oath were, “What did the president know and when did she know it?”

But it is Samsung, the biggest of all the conglomerates, that is at the center of the allegations about too-cozy links between big business and the presidential Blue House.

Samsung’s Seoul headquarters were raided last month by prosecutors who were reportedly investigating whether the tech giant illegally funneled more than $3 million to a company owned by Choi, allegedly to fund her daughter’s equestrian training in Germany. They tried to have Lee explain who at Samsung made decisions to sponsor the Choi family, but he evaded answering.

However the leaders of the three main opposition parties have rejected any proposal to extend her time in office.

Each conglomerate is being grilled over their connection with the scandal, with lawmakers condemning the lack of morality in local family-controlled groups.

Also attending the hearing were Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won as well as heads of CJ, LG, Hanwha and Hanjin. The application was later denied. Moreover, Park’s impeachment process could go on for six months, after which the conservative-leaning Constitutional Court could theoretically turn down the impeachment motion. Consumer sentiment fell sharply in November, down to 95.8 – the lowest level since April 2009 during the financial crisis – from 101.9.