As public anger grows toward Choi Soon-sil, a confidante of President Park Geun-hye who allegedly meddled in key government affairs as a civilian, South Korean game developers have launched new mobile games mocking the woman at the center of the country’s roiling political scandal.
Choi Soon-sil, 60, is a longtime friend of President Park who allegedly acted as the president’s secret adviser without holding a government title. She is accused of using her personal ties to the president to wield undue influence over state affairs and presidential matters.
Screenshots of “Hurry up Soon-sil”
Numerous games involving Choi have recently appeared on the Google Play mobile app store, such as “Hurry up Soon-sil,” in which a horse-riding character named “Soon-siri,” a nickname that compares Choi to Apple’s artificial intelligence assistant Siri, attempts to race forward in front of the Blue House while avoiding obstacles -- giant handcuffs.
The horse alludes to Choi’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra, a professional dressage rider who allegedly abused her mother’s power to gain acceptance into Ewha Woman’s University as well as advance her professional horse-riding career.
Another game called “Choi’s Gate” lets users gain points by clicking the right words that match peculiar remarks formerly made by Park Geun-hye, presumably while reading from scripts written by Choi.
A Screenshot of “Choi’s Gate”
Some of them include infamous phrases such as “If you really want something, the universe will step up to help you and you will achieve your dreams.”
Other phrases featured in the game include “Forgo learning your country’s history, and you will become soulless; learn the wrong history, and your soul will become abnormal. It’s a truly frightening thought.”
This selection of phrases aims to mock the president’s “shamanistic” relationship with Choi, the daughter of Park’s late mentor and religious cult leader Choi Tae-min.
The late Choi had reportedly acted a close adviser to Park since her mother Yook Young-soo was assassinated by a North Korean sympathizer in 1974. Upon Choi’s death, his daughter Soon-sil is said to have taken over her father’s role.
Other games mocking the controversial figure include “Soon-sil Raises Chicken,” which parodies President Park as a chicken being raised by “Soon-siri.”
The chicken performs multiple missions, such as using her opposition against North Korea to win the election, editing speech texts and saving the country. In passing each mission, the “Yushin” ability rises.
The term refers to the Yushin Constitution, which laid the foundation for President Park Chung-hee, the current president’s father, to extend his authoritarian rule during the 1970s.
User reactions to the new games have been highly positive, with all three of the mentioned games scoring 4.9 out of 5 stars on Google Play.
By Sohn Ji-young (
jys@heraldcorp.com)
