With rock music and pinatas, S. Koreans rally against Park

Demonstrators also marched in streets near the presidential offices, carrying candles and illuminating cellphones, and shouting “Park Geun-hye step down” and “Arrest Park Geun-hye.”

The rally came as state prosecutors prepared to question Park over suspicions that she allowed a secretive confidante to manipulate power from the shadows and amass an illicit fortune, a scandal that critics say undermines the country’s democracy.

On Sunday, prosecutors plan to indict the confidante, Choi Soon-sil, and two presidential aides who allegedly helped her interfere with state affairs and bully companies into giving tens of millions of dollars to foundations she controlled.

The protests continue to draw people from all ages and regions, including many families with children.

People swayed to the music of the rock band Deulgukhwa, which played in front of a massive video screen on a temporary stage that has become the centre of the rallies.

Earlier Saturday, children threw bean bags at a Park pinata, which burst open to reveal a Choi pinata. Popping out from the smaller pinata was a Barbie doll on a stuffed horse, meant to be Choi’s daughter, an equestrian athlete who allegedly got a virtual free pass into an elite university because of her family’s presidential ties. Nearby, actors impersonating Choi and Park encouraged protesters to mock them.

“Satire, not anger, is the strongest form of expression,” said Lim Ok-sang, an artist who created the pinata.

For teenagers stuck in South Korea’s hyper-competitive school environment, the allegations surrounding Choi’s daughter, Yoora Chung, 20, seemed to be their biggest source of anger. In South Korea, graduating from elite universities is seen as important in career and even marriage prospects.

“We invest blood and sweat into our studies to get into a good school, and it’s disheartening to see how everything was so easy for Chung,” said Moon Jeong-ju, a high school student who took an eight-hour bus ride from the southern city of Suncheon to participate in the rally.

On Friday, South Korea’s Education Ministry said it demanded that Ewha Womans University cancel the admission of Chung after it found that the school had manipulated its admissions process to accept her.

Emboldened by the huge protests in recent weeks, opposition parties have been stepping up pressure to force Park to quit.

On Thursday, they used their parliamentary majority to pass a law that would allow for a special prosecutor to independently investigate the scandal and potentially expose the president’s wrongdoings.

There is a growing voice within the opposition that an impeachment attempt is inevitable because it’s unlikely Park will resign and give up her immunity from prosecution.

Kim Tong-Hyung, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

With rock music and pinatas, S. Koreans rally against Park

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