The South Korean Puppet President

My experience watching a conspiracy theory turn mainstream

Who’s really in control?

“How can a leader have a shaman, or someone linked to a religious cult as a secret advisor…?”

Earlier this week, late in the evening of Wednesday October 26th, I stumbled across a 4chan theory via r/conspiracy. It talked about South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye being controlled by the “8 Goddesses”, a supposed cabal of eight powerful Korean billionaire women.

According to 4chan, this theory is roughly 2–3 years old and people laughed it off. But then a “whistleblower” exposed various documents. Through that “proof”, one of the eight women was “confirmed” as a “former psychic” named “Choi Sun-sil” who “indoctrinated” President Park since she was 23.

Apparently, no one believed those crazy accusations… until President Park “confirmed” them in a news conference and “asked for forgiveness”. People then went digging and found further “evidence” that this was true, including photos of Choi escorting Park around when she was in her 20s. It even points out that Choi is believed to be hiding out somewhere in Germany.

Usually when I stumble across these theories they don’t have such specific, recent information that can be so easily cross-checked. So, curious, that’s what I did. I lazily googled “8 goddesses” and you know what I found? Nothing (beyond the reddit thread that initially introduced it to me) and so naturally, I assumed it was just another unfounded conspiracy theory.

Clearly, I didn’t dig far enough.

Fast-forward to Saturday morning, just a few days later, when I found myself dumbfounded: this story hit mainstream. The Guardian is reporting that President Park clearly had close ties to Choi who “meddled in government decisions” as President Park admitted to “letting an old friend and daughter of a religious cult leader to interfere in important state affairs” during her televised apology on Tuesday.

Turns out, Bloomberg reported that ‘unusual apology’ earlier in the week on Tuesday, October 25th.

NPR is reporting that tens of thousands of Koreans are protesting, demanding President Park step down. They explain:

“The old friend of the president’s, Choi Soon-sil, also runs two non-profit foundations that prosecutors say boasted of its ties with the president to collect more than $70 million in donations from the country’s major conglomerates. Prosecutors opened up an investigation into the foundations in early October, and are seeking Choi, who is accused of siphoning some of those funds for personal use — including to cover equestrian training for her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra. (Choi emerged in Germany over the weekend and denies any wrongdoing.)”

The Wall Street Journal notes that President Park allowed Choi to edit her speeches. Here’s how Choi and Park are connected:

“Ms. Choi and Ms. Park reportedly became friends in the 1970s, when Ms. Choi’s late father, Choi Tae-min, a shadowy religious figure who was a Buddhist monk, cult leader and Christian pastor at different points of his life, emerged as Ms. Park’s mentor.”

The Hankyoreh reports that Choi “received detailed presidential report[s] almost daily, and led meetings on governance.” Through a Mir Foundation secretary-general and close associate to Choi, Lee Sung-han, he explains:

“…it’s actually a system where Choi tells the President to do things this way or that way. There aren’t any issues where the President can decide on her own…”

Finally, the Washington Post reports that the South Korean presidency is on the brink of collapse and actually references the possibility of a “mysterious clique called the ‘eight fairies’”.

So there you have it: my experience watching a conspiracy turn mainstream. If you’re interested in more context and how deeply this is affecting the Korean culture, start HERE.

[PART 2 ; PART 3]