Could This Be The Beginning Of The End Of Park Geun-Hye’s Presidency?      

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who wanted to be identified as a crusader against corruption in the country, has now become the centre of a vast scandal that observers believe could lead to her ultimate undoing.

“Now as never before, we must identify the roots of irregularities and bring to light the clumbs of corruption that are wrapped up in those roots,” she said last year, marking the passage of a sweeping anti corruption bill that recently went into effect.

However, Park Geun-hye is now facing a perfect storm at home over allegations of having given a long rope to a mysterious female friend - shaking the very foundation of her presidency. She is under pressure from all sections of the Korean society as allegations of corruption have snowballed into a major crisis that has paralysed the ruling establishment.

South Koreans took to the streets of Seoul demanding the resignation of the president, who they claim has granted her close friend Choi Soon-sil access to confidential information, and let her exploit Park’s position to manipulate non-profit foundations to her personal advantage. There are allegations that Choi acts as a spiritual guru to the Korean President.

Park’s confidante has been operating a massive slush fund having extorted funds amounting to more than $70 million from Korea's largest corporations. Revelations include totally unencrypted messages on confidential policy briefings and draft presidential speeches. Park’s ‘mentor’ also spoofed admission procedures at Ewha Womans University to get her daughter admitted there. This was the last straw when her presidency started to slip into disgrace.

Ewha students' protest over that preferential treatment sparked investigations into the relationship between Park and Choi.

Is Choi just an old friend, or is the association with her perceived as a malefic influence on Park?

Choi’s friendship is viewed with suspicion as it brings back memories of the Rasputin-like beguilement the South Korean presidency was once subjected to – thanks to Choi’s father who was labelled the Korean Rasputin by some.

The friendship is decades old and dates back to the times when the fathers of the women under scrutiny shared a similar association.

The current president is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, a military strongman who took power in a coup, but who later sought to build a strong and democratic South Korea. But his ambitions were cut short in 1979 when he was assassinated by his own head of intelligence, who later confided that he fired that fatal shot as he had fallen under the influence of Choi Tae-min, a sham pastor – a Buddhist who converted to Christianity and then set up what he called the "Church of Eternal Life".

And most importantly - the father of Choi Soon-sil.

Five years before the president's assassination, Park’s mother was shot dead by a sympathiser of North Korea. The daughter immediately returned from her studies in Europe and became a de facto ‘first lady’ accompanying her president father on his official duties.

Senior Choi was a cultist of sorts and became a friend of the Park family, both of the senior president Park and of his daughter, now president, as she was growing up. Naturally, Choi's daughter became a friend of the young Park Geun-hye.

With both parents having fallen victims to political violence, the daughter then entered politics on her own account. The lonely Park with no immediate family to turn to for support came to depend on her friend, a theory says.

The two young women remained friends and it is this friendship that has now put Park’s presidency at stake.

President Park has already apologised, without giving any explanations.

She said her friend Choi was her counsel on public relations during the last presidential campaign and told her what expressions were to be used in her speeches continued to support her after she became president.