Park Geun-hye / Choi Soon-sil scandal (2016): Convictions, then a pardon

From late October 2016 through March 2017, Saturday candlelight protests filled Seoul streets, including Gwanghwamun. The National Assembly passed an impeachment motion on 9 December 2016. The Constitutional Court upheld it unanimously on 10 March 2017, removing Park from office. A snap election made Moon Jae-in president. Special prosecutors and criminal courts then tried Park, Choi and business figures including Samsung's Lee Jae-yong on bribery and abuse-of-power theories.

Park was convicted in 2018 and received a long prison term, later adjusted on appeal; Moon pardoned her in December 2021 on health and reconciliation grounds. Choi was also convicted. The status is convicted: courts named crimes. The pardon is aftermath, not an acquittal. English-language papers framed the candlelight weeks as a peaceful 'candlelight revolution' and sometimes reached for Watergate or Rasputin metaphors; the Korean civic fact is a constitutional removal after mass, non-war protest.

A confidante, a tablet and a constitutional court The Park–Choi scandal is a public-record case of informal power: leaked devices, conglomerate money, candlelight crowds, impeachment and convictions — then a pardon. JTBC's October 2016 tablet story and follow-ups by Hankyoreh, Kyunghyang and others documented Choi's edits of speeches and her role in channelling chaebol donations into foundations, notably Mir and K-Sports. The public charge was that state authority had been used to solicit or pressure support for private projects. This page does not reconstruct how to extract money from a firm.