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. When he returned, he found Ms Choi in his home, furious with him for abandoning the puppy. “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.  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. “You opened Pandora’s box,” Sohn Hye-won, an opposition lawmaker, said during the hearing. 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. 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. He said a friend introduced him to Ms. Choi in 2012, when he was running a handbag and clothing company called Villomillo. He gave around 40 luxury handbags made of ostrich skin and crocodile leather, and 100 bespoke pieces of clothing to the president. 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. Both buildings are owned by Choi. Reporters went digging for evidence to back it up, and obtained a tablet containing selfies of Ms Choi and files of presidential speeches. "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. South Koreans were outraged that Ms. Park let Ms. Choi, who had no experience in government, edit some of her most important speeches.
– 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.