S. Korea prosecutors grill Park over corruption allegations

Park’s questioning lasted 14 hours and ended just before midnight. She spent about seven more hours at the prosecutors’ office reviewing their report to check whether they accurately described her testimony.

When she left the prosecutors’ office and got into a black sedan waiting for her, Park didn’t make any comments to reporters. But when she arrived at her home in southern Seoul, live TV footage showed Park smiling, talking to ruling party lawmakers and giving a nod in gestures of greetings several times for dozens of flag-waving supporters who lined up streets leading up to her residence.

In Park’s questioning, prosecutors tried to determine whether to seek an arrest warrant, according to South Korean media. Many other suspects implicated in the scandal have already been arrested, including Park’s confidante Choi Soon-sil, some top government officials and Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong.

Prosecutors have previously accused Park of extortion, bribery and abuse of power, which could theoretically carry penalties of up to life imprisonment. But arresting Park would be a delicate matter because it might aggravate a national divide and create a strong conservative backlash ahead of an election in May to choose her successor, some political experts said.

Park’s scandal has roiled South Korea for months, with those opposing and supporting her rule staging massive rallies. After the March 10 constitutional Court ruling, Park supporters clashed with police, leaving three dead. On Tuesday, hundreds of Park’s supporters waited for hours outside the prosecutors’ office, holding anti-impeachment signs and the national flag, which has become a symbol of their protest.

Park had immunity while in office and had refused to meet with prosecutors or allow officials to search her presidential compound. After leaving office, she has continued to reject the allegations, saying “I believe the truth will certainly come out.”

Park is the first democratically elected leader to be forced out of office in South Korea since democracy replaced dictatorship in the late 1980s.

It was a dramatic fall for Park, the daughter of slain dictator Park Chung-hee who became the country’s first female president in early 2013 with the backing of conservatives who remembered her father as a hero who pulled the country up from poverty despite his suppression of civil rights.

Moon Jae-in, a liberal who lost the 2012 presidential election to Park, currently has a commanding lead in opinion surveys for next leader.

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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this story.

Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

S. Korea prosecutors grill Park over corruption allegations

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