South Korea’s embattled president offers to relinquish power

“I will leave to parliament everything about my future including shortening of my term,” she said in a televised speech amid mounting calls for her to resign over an influence scandal that has engulfed her presidency. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of South Koreans rallied for the fifth weekend in a row, calling for Park’s resignation. Organisers said the crowd totalled 1.5 million, while the police estimated the crowd at 260,000. No South Korean president has failed to complete a term since the current democratic system was implemented in 1987. If Park is impeached or resigns, an election would be held in 60 days to nominate a president to serve a five-year term. Park’s approval rating fell to just 4 percent in a weekly survey released on Friday by Gallup Korea, an all time-low for a democratically elected South Korean president. Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, and a former aide have been indicted in the case. Prosecutors named Park as an accomplice in an investigation into whether big business was inappropriately pressured to contribute money to foundations set up to back Park’s initiatives. The presidential office and Park’s lawyer have denied the prosecutors’ accusations. Instead of responding to the current investigators’ request for questioning, Park, 64, will prepare for an investigation by a special prosecutor that is expected to begin in December, according to her lawyer. Park has acknowledged carelessness in her ties with Choi, who Park has said had helped her through difficult times. Their friendship dates to an era when Park served as acting first lady after her mother was killed by an assassin’s bullet intended for her father, then-president Park Chung-hee. Five years later, in 1979, Park’s father was murdered by his disgruntled spy chief.