by Yoo Seungki
SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Public anger exploded on the streets over a scandal involving South Korean President Park Geun-hye's longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil, who is alleged to have meddled in state affairs from the shadows and peddling undue influence for personal gains.
Ranging from couples with their babies and children to students in school uniforms and grey-haired old men, ordinary South Koreans crowded the streets in central Seoul on Saturday as seen in the previous two weekends.
Protesters shouted for the scandal-hit president's resignation, with a wider array of posters in their hands reading "Park Geun-hye, step down," "Incompetent president destroys country," "Is this called a country?" People marched in the evening with paper cup-wrapped candles in hand.
Banners along the road varied, demanding President Park distance herself from all state affairs, including diplomacy and defense. One banner from the minor Justice Party proposed a roadmap of Park's resignation, the forming of interim cabinet and early presidential election.
The embattled president made public apologies twice and accepted a coalition cabinet formed by the parliament, but people get infuriated further on growing views that Park has yet to sincerely confess to her sins.
As Donald Trump's presidential win in the United States caused security uncertainties on the Korean Peninsula, people call for Park's rapid resignation as she already lost credibility and authority in the diplomatic stage.
"(Park) has yet to sincerely apologize. (Park) can no longer govern our country as she already lost credibility and authority," said Shin Yoon-seo, a 17-year-old high school student attending the rally with fellow students.
Choi, whose friendship with President Park dates back to the mid-1970s, is suspected of pulling government strings behind the scenes. Allegations range from selecting wardrobe to be worn by the president in official events to the editing of important presidential speeches and the appointment of senior government officials.
Some local media outlets even speculated that Choi may have engaged in the July decision to deploy a U.S. missile shield system in southeast South Korea by the end of next year. It was a surprising decision because Seoul had previously refrained from even raising the issue.
During Saturday's rally, dissatisfactions with Park's business-friendly policies also burst into a fit of rage especially among workers and farmers. At least 100,000 members and supporters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), one of the country's two umbrella labor union groups, joined the protest.
The Park Geun-hye administration has been criticized for labor policies that allow companies to fire regular employees more easily and increase irregular workers more comfortably. The number of irregular workers has increased since the Lee Myung-bak government that ended in February 2013.
"Under the governments of Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, regular workers fell and irregular workers rose. Park Geun-hye is seeking an illegal alteration in administrative directives to produce more irregular workers, which is in violation of labor law," said 44-year-old Choi Dong-sik, a KCTU participant in the rally.
