In 1974, a North Korean sympathizer tries to assassinate the dictator of South Korea but misses and kills his wife instead
A preacher/cult leader, Choi Tae-min, contacts the Park Gun-hye (dictators daughter) and says she can communicate to her mother
He gains unlimited influence over her and earns huge sums for access to the dictator's daughter and in effect, the government
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The dictator is assassinated in 1979 and a military dictator takes over, thus the cult leader loses his influence, but still has control over Park Gun Hye
In 1990 Park Gun-hye's sister writes to the government asking them to save her sister from Choi Tae-min
Choi Tae-min dies in 1994 and his daughter Choi Sun-sil takes over, continuing to work with Park
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Park Gun Hye runs for office and becomes an elected official in 1998
In 2007 she runs for President, but loses her parties nomination. At this point the US embassy points out to the US government about her history with the cult leader, revealed in WikiLeaks cables.
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In 2012, she runs again and wins the election. Choi Sun-sil is in charge of producing the inauguration ceremony
Her public behavior as President is erratic and very rarely gives any press conferences. Her speeches are described as rambling and full of odd wording
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Fast forward to 2016 and there is a scandal about Choi Sun-sil's daughter getting in to a prestigious Korean university and preferential treatment despite not getting the grades or attending classes
Choi Sun-sil and her daughter flee to Germany to get away from the scandal
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The Korean cable TV network JTBC somehow got its hands on an 'abandoned tablet
' in Choi Sun-sil's former office which contains evidence that she was given confidential government files including upcoming speeches and government papers despite not being in public office
Park apologizes but says that she hasn't consulted with Choi since early days in her presidency
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More evidence comes out from the files and witnesses that Choi had complete influence over Park, from rewriting speeches to choosing/making her clothes for official engagements, and was doing so right up to earlier this year
Choi has strongarmed Korean conglomerates into donating money to her 'foundations', threatening them that their businesses will be harmed by the government if they don't (basically extortion)
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Choi apparently leads a select group of eight advisers including a gigolo and a K-pop video director who control everything Park does and shamanistic rituals regularly take place in government buildings
Protests have been raging for weeks about these revelations. Hundred's of thousands of South Koreans have been protesting and calling for her to quit.
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As of 4:10pm Seoul time, prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has become the acting president of South Korea as this vote still has to go through South Korea's constitutional court with a maximum of 180 days to decide impeachment.
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www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSKBN13X2JS