Daily Times

SEOUL: Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans rallied in Seoul on Saturday in the sixth straight weekend of protests demanding the resignation of scandal-tainted President Park Geun-hye that took them closer than ever to the presidential Blue House. The march came after three opposition parties introduced a bill for parliament to impeach Park, who could become the first democratically elected leader to leave office early in disgrace. The bill, signed by 171 members of the 300-seat unicameral assembly, said Park had violated the constitution and criminal law by abusing her power in the influence-peddling scandal. Protesters marching to within 100 meters (yards) of the Blue House called on Park to step down immediately, rejecting her third public apology and request to parliament to decide when and how she should quit. “It’s a national disgrace that she’s still in that position. She should have already stepped down,” said Kim Jae-hwa, a 43-year-old mother from Seoul, who attended the rally with two adolescent daughters.