South Korea was plunged into a murky political scandal as revelations emerged that the president seeks the advice of a mysterious female friend with ties to a religious cult and other shadow advisers. Hundreds of thousands are flooding the streets in anger, demanding President Park Geun-hye's resignation. Has a group of unelected shamans been running the show in one of the region's most important states? How much damage has been done to South Korea’s policies? And with the election of Donald Trump in the US putting South Korea's security policies in jeopardy, will the public's attention shift to developments overseas? We ask a leading Asia scholar, Professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University – Andrei Lankov.
