Inside Story

What’s next for South Korea?

The head of the state-run pension fund is detained deepening the political crisis in South Korea.

South Korea has had a difficult year: months of the biggest protests ever seen there, then parliament voting for the first time ever to impeach the president.

The corruption scandal surrounding her now ensnares the head of the state-run pension fund – who is also a former health minister.

He has been detained for questioning by fraud investigators trying to track the movement of huge amounts of money – and whether massive bribes were paid.

The expanding probe into the corruption scandal is splitting the Saenuri Party of President Park Geun-hye. The 29 anti-Park MPs have defected to form a new conservative party which will campaign for reform.

The Saenuri Party has been demoted to the second-largest in parliament.

What are the other political implications?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan

Guests:

BJ Kim, Adjunct Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Aidan Foster Carter, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University

Jean Lee, Global Fellow at the Korea Center, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC