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 SEOUL, South Korea — Did a fight over a puppy lead to the vote to impeach South Korea’s leader? A whistle-blower whose account has riveted South Koreans says it did. 
 
 The corruption scandal that engulfed the president, Park Geun-hye, was rooted in her friendship with Choi Soon-sil, her secretive adviser and friend for 40 years. Ms. Choi has been indicted on charges of extorting tens of millions of dollars from big businesses, and prosecutors have identified Ms. Park as a criminal accomplice, a first for a South Korean president. 
 
 Ko Young-tae, the whistle-blower, said at a parliamentary hearing this week that he got into an argument with Ms. Choi over walking her daughter’s puppy one day in 2014. He said Ms. Choi became upset when she found the dog alone at his home. 
 
 “I didn’t get her call because I was out golfing,” he said. “She was angry that I left the dog alone, and we had a fight.” 
 
 Mr. Ko, 40, a former Asian Games gold medal fencer, said afterward he decided to expose Ms. Choi’s ties with Ms. Park to local news media. 
 
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 Mr. Ko had apparently videotaped Ms. Choi in 2014 giving orders to two presidential aides as though they were servants. In one scene that went viral, one of the aides wiped his smartphone on his shirt before handing it reverentially to Ms. Choi. The footage, aired in October on TV Chosun, left little doubt about Ms. Choi’s influence over Ms. Park. 
 
 Mr. Ko also was said to have an advance copy of Ms. Park’s itinerary for an overseas trip that Ms. Choi had received; it showed that the president had worn certain colors on certain days based on Ms. Choi’s recommendations. 
 
 Mr. Ko has become a hero to many in South Korea. “You opened Pandora’s box,” Sohn Hye-won, an opposition lawmaker, said during the hearing. 
 
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 Even before he gave his account, Mr. Ko had emerged as an intriguing figure in Ms. Park’s corruption scandal, which has involved as many plot twists as the best of Korean soap operas. Local media said he was a former employee at a Seoul “host bar,” where male prostitutes cater to female clients, before he befriended Ms. Choi, 60. 
 
 In his testimony, Mr. Ko denied that he and Ms. Choi had been a couple. 
 
 He said a friend introduced him to Ms. Choi in 2012, when he was running a handbag and clothing company called Villomillo. Ms. Choi ordered 100 pieces of clothes and 40 handbags made of ostrich skin and crocodile leather. The items were delivered to Ms. Park, who was later seen toting Villomillo handbags. 
 
 (Ms. Park’s office said she paid for the items, denying opposition lawmakers’ allegations that they were bribes from Ms. Choi.) 
 
 Mr. Ko said he handed over his video footage to TV Chosun last year, but it was not broadcast until Oct. 25. 
 
 A day earlier, on Oct. 24, the rival cable channel JTBC broadcast what was considered the biggest media scoop connected to the scandal. One of its reporters obtained a discarded tablet computer that it said had belonged to Ms. Choi. 
 
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 Files discovered there included drafts of 44 speeches and statements that Ms. Park had given between 2012 and 2014, as a candidate and later as president. Many passages were marked in red. 
 
 “The only thing Ms. Choi did well was to edit President Park’s speeches,” Mr. Ko told JTBC in October. (Ms. Park has since acknowledged that she asked for Ms. Choi’s feedback on her speech drafts.) 
 
 South Koreans were outraged that Ms. Park let Ms. Choi, who had no experience in government, edit some of her most important speeches. The allegation was particularly damning because Ms. Park was known for shunning one-on-one meetings with her own official aides. 
 
 Mr. Ko said Ms. Choi’s behavior made him believe she was the most powerful person in Ms. Park’s government. 
 
 “She insulted me and acted as if her underlings were subhuman,” Mr. Ko said. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Ko has denied he had an affair with presidential confidante Choi Soon-sil 
 
 The political scandal engulfing South Korea has culminated in Park Geun-hye's impeachment but according to one account, it all started with an argument over a puppy. The BBC's Tessa Wong unravels an outlandish series of events. 
 
 With his good looks and athletic build worthy of any South Korean pop star, Ko Young-tae has been the object of public fascination for months. 
 
 The former national fencer is closely linked to Choi Soon-sil, 60, the presidential confidante who now faces corruption charges. 
 
 Rumours about Mr Ko, 40, have saturated local media, which even labelled him Ms Choi's "toy boy". 
 
 But this week in front of a parliamentary committee he denied they were a couple. 
 
 Then, he proceeded to tell the extraordinary tale of how an argument prompted him to go to the press with revelations that would ultimately lead to the president's impeachment. 
 
 Read more: What is South Korea's presidential scandal? 
 
 Read more: The friendship behind the presidential crisis 
 
 Dressing the president 
 
 According to Mr Ko it all began in 2012, shortly after Ms Park was elected president. 
 
 Mr Ko, an Asian Games gold medallist, had long retired from fencing. His day job at that time was running a handbag and clothing company called Villomillo. 
 
 One day a friend asked him to show some of Villomillo's latest products to a mysterious buyer. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Ko has been the object of public fascination since the scandal blew up 
 
 "My friend asked me to bring some new items (to a designated place), so I did. That's when I saw Choi for the first time," Mr Ko recounted at a public hearing this week. 
 
 Ms Choi liked what she saw, and he began supplying her with items which would end up in Ms Park's wardrobe. 
 
 He gave around 40 luxury handbags made of ostrich skin and crocodile leather, and 100 bespoke pieces of clothing to the president. 
 
 They cost tens of thousands of dollars, and Ms Choi paid for all of them out of her own pocket, according to Mr Ko. 
 
 Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Ms Choi is accused of influence-peddling 
 
 He strongly denied that he and Ms Choi became a couple - they were just friends, he said. 
 
 But he did not deny that she trusted him enough to give him appointments in two Germany-based companies which she owned. 
 
 As Ms Park's unofficial clothier Mr Ko also began to enjoy fame and success, especially after Ms Park was spotted toting a Villomillo bag in 2013, according to local media reports. 
 
 The brand drew celebrity customers and Mr Ko became a member of the local entertainment scene, even joining a celebrity baseball team called Play Boys. 
 
 'Puppygate' 
 
 In perhaps some of the most extraordinary testimony heard in South Korea's parliamentary chamber, Mr Ko described how trouble was brewing between him and Ms Choi. 
 
 In 2014, the businesswoman asked him to take care of her daughter's puppy. Mr Ko brought the dog to his house, then left it there as he went out to play a round of golf. 
 
 When he returned, he found Ms Choi in his home, furious with him for abandoning the puppy. The two had a "huge fight", he said. 
 
 From then on their relationship went downhill. "She treated me like a slave, swearing at me many times," he said in his candid account. 
 
 Angry and hurt, Mr Ko decided to exact revenge by going to the press about Ms Choi and Ms Park's relationship. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption The scandal is centred on the close relationship between Ms Park and Ms Choi 
 
 Over the months he collected evidence of Ms Choi's power over Ms Park's administration, including CCTV footage of Ms Choi treating presidential aides as her personal servants. He eventually turned them over to a local broadcaster. 
 
 Then, in October, he did a TV interview where he alleged Ms Choi's "favourite thing" was to edit Ms Park's presidential speeches. 
 
 Reporters went digging for evidence to back it up, and obtained a tablet containing selfies of Ms Choi and files of presidential speeches. 
 
 The discovery, along with other revelations of Ms Choi's allegedly suspicious business dealings, sparked public outrage and launched a wide-reaching corruption inquiry that has ensnared even corporate bigwigs and celebrities. 
 
 Ms Park later admitted she gave Ms Choi inappropriate government access - including to her speeches - and apologised. But she has denied the allegations of corruption that prosecutors have laid down. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Parliamentarians have voted to impeach Ms Park 
 
 The president has now been impeached, while in another twist Mr Ko is seen as a public hero, hailed by netizens for his "whistleblowing". 
 
 One lawmaker during the public hearing even praised him for "opening Pandora's box". 
 
 Asked in parliament if he feared opposing Ms Choi, the woman who had the president's ear, Mr Ko said "No". 
 
 "I was hot-tempered and never thought about that part," he declared. "I have no regrets." ||||| Ko Young-tae's office, located in the building on the right, is next to Choi Soon-sil's residence in the other building. Both buildings are owned by Choi. Ko is suspected of managing The Blue K and Wide Sports. Ko underwent 40 hours of questioning by prosecutors until Saturday as he had voluntarily appeared at the prosecution's office late Thursday after entering the country earlier that day. No details have been released yet. / Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han 
 
 
 
 By Chung Hyun-chae 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ko Young-tae 
 
 
 
 The investigation by the prosecution on the influence-peddling scandal surrounding Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye's confidant, shed light on Choi's clandestine relationship with a host bar worker. 
 
 
 
 Ko Young-tae, 40, had voluntarily turned up at the prosecutor's office for questioning late Thursday after entering the country earlier in the day. After a 40-hour prosecutorial investigation over how confidential documents including the President's speeches reached Choi, he returned home around noon Saturday but was summoned again Sunday. 
 
 
 
 No details about the interrogation are available. 
 
 
 
 Ko is suspected of managing The Blue K and Widec Sports _ paper companies Choi set up in Korea and Germany allegedly to funnel money away from the Mir and K-Sports foundations. 
 
 
 
 Little is known about Ko. 
 
 
 
 He is a former member of the national saber team, winning a gold medal at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. 
 
 
 
 Being through with sports, Ko worked at well-known host bars in Gangnam, southern Seoul, according to reports and witnesses. A host bar is an establishment where female customers are served by male hosts who engage in conversation as well as sometimes barter for sexual services. The two are believed to have met and become close at one such host bar, around 2006. 
 
 
 
 "Ko made a lot of money with his good looks," said an anonymous man who introduced himself as Ko's coworker at the bar during Kim Hyun-jung's "NEWS SHOW" on Christian Broadcasting Service (CBS) Radio, Friday. 
 
 
 
 "I assume that Choi was one of Ko's close customers as they are on friendly terms with each other despite the 20-year age gap between them," he said. Choi is 60 years old, and the friendly terms despite a two-decade age difference can indicate an intimate relationship, according to reports. 
 
 
 
 According to the coworker, Ko was working as a sales director, tasked to bring in rich middle-aged women to the bar using the alias Min-woo. 
 
 
 
 Having a foot in the fashion industry in 2008 with Choi's assistance, Ko launched his accessory brand Villomillo. It became famous after President Park carried his bag in 2013. With the instant success, his products drew a lot of celebrity customers and he established a wide range of contacts. 
 
 
 
 Cha Eun-taek, another embattled man in charge of Mir Foundation, was Ko's acquaintance, and Ko introduced Cha to Choi, which marked the turning point of their relationship from good to sour, according to news reports. 
 
 
 
 "Choi's favorite thing to do is to edit presidential speeches," Ko said during an interview with broadcaster JTBC in the middle of this month. 
 
 
 
 That comment prompted the cable news channel to look for the President's speeches in computer files. The JTBC finally found the files and that turned out to be one of the biggest breaking stories in recent years. 
 
 
 
 This backfired on Choi when she said the tablet computer's owner is Ko, not her. 
 
 "I do not even know how to use a tablet PC," Choi said during an interview with the Segye Ilbo on Wednesday in Germany.
– The impeachment of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and the scandal surrounding it, all comes down to a canine. Park's downfall started over ties with Choi Soon-sil, a close friend for decades embroiled in criminal controversies and secretly advising Park—and who got into an argument with the eventual whistleblower over her daughter's pup, the New York Times reports. Ko Young-tae relayed his story at a parliamentary hearing last week, noting he and Choi got into a tiff after she discovered the dog, which he'd been asked to walk, alone in his apartment while he was out golfing. He says that after they exchanged words, he decided to come forward with what he knew about Choi and Park. Ko, 40, an ex-member of the nation's fencing team and called Choi's "boy toy," had worked at a Seoul "host bar," where male workers entertain female customers with conversation and sexual services. The Korea Times says he reportedly met Choi at one of those bars in 2006, though he testified last week he'd been introduced to her by a pal in 2012 (and he denied at last week's hearing they were ever a couple, per the BBC). Regardless of how they met or their official status, their relationship allowed him to reportedly get his hands on Park's clothing choices for a trip overseas, as well as videotape of Choi ordering two presidential aides around; he turned that footage over to a Korean cable network, which aired it in October. "She insulted me and acted as if her underlings were subhuman," he said in his testimony, adding that after the dog fight, she "treated me like a slave, swearing at me many times," per the BBC. Some of his compatriots say Ko is a national hero for his revelations. "You opened Pandora's box," one lawmaker said during the hearing.