SOUTH Korean President Park Geun-hye yesterday reshuffled her secretariat amid growing public outcry over a scandal surrounding her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil.

    Park’s office said the president approved the resignations of five senior advisers, including presidential chief of staff and senior secretaries for policy coordination, civil affairs, political affairs and public relations.

    The senior presidential adviser on policy coordination has been accused of pressuring conglomerates into donating tens of millions of U.S. dollars into recently established nonprofit foundations controlled by Choi.

    New secretaries for civil affairs and public relations were already appointed, but three remaining positions will be filled rapidly, the presidential office said.

    Three more secretaries, who local media outlets see as the closest aides to Park since her political career in the late 1990s, also stepped down. One of them reportedly delivered presidential speeches and documents to Choi regularly.

    Park’s decision came as the first South Korean female leader directed all of her senior staff Friday night to submit their resignations en masse.

    Earlier yesterday, the shadowy woman at the center of Park’s worst political scandal apologized for her “wrongdoings” and will cooperate with prosecutors investigating allegations that she had improper control over state affairs, Choi’s lawyer said.

    Choi returned to South Korea early yesterday from Germany, where she had been staying, her lawyer told reporters.

    “Choi has expressed through her attorney that she will actively respond to prosecutors’ investigation and will testify according to the facts,” Lee Kyung-jae, her lawyer, said yesterday morning.

    “She is deeply remorseful that she caused frustration and despondency among the public,” Lee said.

    Choi left Europe on a flight from London to avoid media camped out in Germany, Lee said. She would make herself available for questioning by prosecutors, he said.

    Choi was under intense pressure to return to South Korea as the political crisis engulfed Park over allegations that she allowed Choi to use her friendship to exert improper influence and benefit personally.

    Thousands of South Koreans rallied in Seoul on Saturday demanding Park’s resignation. Angry Koreans say Park betrayed public trust and mismanaged the government, and has lost a mandate to lead the country.

    The protest came as prosecutors investigate presidential aides and other officials to determine whether they broke the law to allow Choi to wield undue influence or gain financially.

    Park said last week she had given Choi access to speech drafts early in her term and apologized for causing concern among the public.

    In an interview with South Korea’s Segye Ilbo newspaper published Thursday, Choi said she received drafts of Park’s speeches after Park’s election victory but denied she had access to other official material, or that she influenced state affairs or benefited financially.

    The crisis has sent Park’s public support to an all-time low. In one opinion poll, more than 40 percent of respondents said Park should resign or be impeached.

    The ruling conservative Saenuri Party said yesterday it had urged Park to form a coalition government with various political parties, which would mean the appointment of a new prime minister.

    (SD-Agencies)