A crisis of leadership is engulfing South Korea as a scandal unravels indicating President Park Geun-hye may have let her civilian friend meddle in state affairs. The following are excerpts from The Korea Herald’s telephone interviews with five political experts on the Choi Soon-sil scandal and what the country should do to move ahead.The Korea Herald: What should President Park do to best address the current situation? Yang Seung-ham, professor of politics at Yonsei University: The president sh

With a prosecutorial investigation closing in, Choi Soon-sil’s lawyer told reporters Friday that his client is willing to return to Korea from Germany for questioning upon the request of the authorities. Choi -- President Park Geun-hye’s old friend and daughter of her late mentor Choi Tae-min -- has no intention of evading justice and is sorry for the confusion that the incident has caused, said attorney Lee Gyeong-jae. 　Prosecutors continued to question individuals about the allegations that Ch

Lee Suk-hee does not know much about Halloween, but last Sunday she found herself buying her first Halloween costume for her daughter.“I don’t really know what Halloween is,” she told The Korea Herald while browsing through rows of Batman, Snow White and witch costumes at a discount store in Yongsan, central Seoul. “It is my first time buying these clothes because my daughter’s kindergarten announced that they will have a Halloween party,” said Lee, who asked for her name to be changed to preser

Civic organizations, student groups and labor unions will hold a joint rally in Seoul on Saturday, calling for President Park Geun-hye‘s resignation. Over 200,000 are expected to gather near Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul at 6 p.m., according to local media. This is the first large-scale anti-government rally since news broke that Choi Soon-sil, a confidante of President Park, meddled in state affairs. Political parties as well as the presidential office are expected to pay keen attention t

Choi Soon-sil, the mysterious woman who has supposedly been the “real power behind the throne” in South Korea’s presidential office, is believed to be hiding overseas, with multiple media reports suggesting that she had stayed in a small German city until recently. According to media outlets that dispatched investigative teams to the European country, Choi had since last year lived in a rural town near Frankfurt called Schmitten with her horseback rider daughter training at an equestrian center

The Nexen Heroes beat the LG Twins 5-1 to even their Korea Baseball Organization postseason series on Friday.Starter Andy Van Hekken gave up just one run over 7 2/3 innings, and light-hitting outfielder Lim Byeong-uk blasted his first career postseason home run at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. The clubs are now tied at 1-1, as the best-of-five first round series moves to LG's home, Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, for Game 3 at 2 p.m. Sunday.After getting blanked 7-0 Thursday, the Heroes scored their first

North Korea pressed Britain Friday to cancel its plan to conduct its first joint air operations drill next month with South Korea and the United States, condemning it as a hostile act."This is a never-to-be pardoned serious challenge to peace and security," an unidentified spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry said in comments carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.Britain should "immediately withdraw its decision to take part in the military drills for aggression."He al

Tottenham Hotspur's South Korean star Son Heung-min was named the Premier League's Player of the Month for September on Friday, becoming the first Asian winner of the honors.The league announced on its website that Son beat out Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne, Liverpool midfielder Adam Lallana, Everton striker Romelu Lukaku and Arsenal's Theo Walcott. (Yonhap)Son scored four goals and set up another as the Spurs won all three matches in September. He netted four goals all of last season, his f

BEIJING (AFP) -- Beijing is planning a mega-merger of chemicals giants Sinochem and China National Chemical Corp. in a massive deal that would reshape the chemicals industry, Bloomberg News reported Friday. The companies together would control assets worth more than $100 billion, it said. The deal comes as authorities attempt a vast restructuring of China's economy intended to weed out inefficient, debt-saddled firms by forcing them to combine with healthier rivals or face bankruptcy.But the tra

Over 70 percent of the textbooks used at international schools here labeled the East Sea -- the body of water between South Korea and Japan -- as the “Sea of Japan,” research showed Friday, leading the government to start a correction campaign. The Ministry of Education conducted a survey of the textbooks used at 47 international and foreign schools in the country from Aug. 16 to Sept. 2 and found that 24 of 33 textbooks had used only the term Sea of Japan. The nine others had both terms written

(Yonhap)South Korea has fewer medical doctors per person than other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a lawmaker revealed Friday. According to Health Ministry data released by Rep. Nam In-soon of The Minjoo Party of Korea, Korea ranks last in terms of the number of doctors, along with Mexico, in the OECD’s ranking of 28 member states. The nation had 2.2 doctors per every 1,000 people as of 2014. Austria has the highest ratio of doctors at 5.1 for every 1,000 p

South Korea’s economy involving the capital market averted shocks in September as the Federal Reserve again delayed its policy to raise the key interest rate. But the US monetary issue still remains a big uncertainty for the local market.Further, two more external factors are aggravating uncertainty at the start of the fourth quarter: the crude oil issue centered on production in the Middle East and the Deutsche Bank woes in Europe.Earlier this week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Count

Aside from lending from the first-tier banks and secondary financial firms, the loan issuance balance from private moneylenders is rapidly increasing. This indicates that South Korea has become a “debtor republic.”According to the Financial Services Commission, the outstanding loans issued by the third-tier lenders came to 13.2 trillion won ($11.9 billion) at the end of 2015. This marked a 7.3 percent increase from 12.3 trillion won at the end of June 2015.Considering the lending rate charged by

Ruthless North Korean leader Kim Jung-un is continuing his bloody reign of terror. The South Korean government confirmed Wednesday that the North recently executed a vice premier and sent two other senior officials to rural farms for re-education on the revolutionary spirit.The executed official was Kim Yong-jin, 63, an expert in educational administration. According to the South’s Unification Ministry, Kim was initially investigated by the North’s intelligence agency for his bad sitting posture

The public’s confidence in the nation’s justice system was further eroded Thursday when an incumbent senior judge was arrested over allegations he received bribes from a disgraced businessman.Kim Su-cheon, a judge of the Incheon District Court, is suspected of having received 170 million won ($152,000) from Jung Woon-ho, the former head of cosmetics company Nature Republic who is serving time for illegal gambling overseas.Kim is alleged to have acquired an imported vehicle from Jung at a giveawa

A private think tank aspiring to become Korea’s answer to the Brookings Institution of the United States has been launched. 　The Future Consensus Institute was founded by Cho Chang-geol, the founder and honorary chairman of Hanssem Co., Korea’s leading interior company that provides furniture, appliances and household accessories.　Cho has promised to contribute 400 billion won ($357 million) worth of his shareholdings in Hanssem to the institute to ensure its financial independence. In March las

The row over Woo Byung-woo, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs who is dogged by accusations of corruption, has taken a new turn as the powerful presidential aide was referred to the prosecution for investigation last week.　Lee Seok-su, the special inspector general who has inspected Woo for a month, wrapped up his inspection Thursday, filing with the prosecution a request for a formal probe into the presidential secretary, who oversees law enforcement agencies, including the prosecu

President Park Geun-hye is trying to reach a compromise with angry residents in Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, over the U.S.’s plan to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in the county by next year.Park has said the administration is willing to change the site where the THAAD will be stationed if there are other locations the county can recommend. But she has clarified that the new location should be within Seongju.Seongju residents, including lawmakers from the Daegu-North

The Corporate Vitality Enhancement Act will take effect in about a week. The law, which was legislated in February, is designed to revitalize ailing industries, such as shipbuilding and steelmaking, which have been suffering from a glut among global competitors.Policymakers say that the law -- which is better known as the “one-shot” law -- would provide conglomerates with decent opportunities to streamline ailing business segments by merging units with similar functions.The special law is drawin

Korea is not the only country where corruption in sports often becomes a hot social issue. But match-fixing scandals that hit the nation’s professional sports intermittently show that the issue requires greater attention from law-enforcement authorities, sports governing bodies and managers of pro clubs. The first major match-fixing scandal erupted in soccer in 2011, which resulted in the indictment of 37 players. Since then, similar cases continued to strike professional sports like baseball, b