With her public support numbers in free-fall, South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Friday offered yet another apology for the political crisis engulfing her administration, adding that she would accept an investigation of her role in an alleged influence-peddling scandal “if necessary.”

“Anyone found by the current investigation to have done something wrong must be held responsible for what they have done, and I am also ready to face any responsibility,” Park was quoted as saying during a nationally televised news conference. Park has been rocked by an influence peddling scandal involving an old friend, sending her approval rating to an all-time low of just 5 percent, a 12 percentage point drop from last week, the lowest since such polling began in 1988, according to a Gallup poll released on Friday. In a brief televised address to journalists, Park said that prosecutors should clarify what happened and that everyone involved should be held accountable, including herself, and take responsibility if found guilty. “It is hard to forgive myself and sleep at night with feelings of sorrow,” Park, 64, said, her voice trembling. Soon after Park’s speech, the main opposition Democratic Party said her apology lacks sincerity and issued a set of demands that it says Park must immediately accept if she doesn’t want see rallies calling for the end of her government. Park has faced growing calls from the public and her political opponents to resign, but no South Korean president has ever failed to finish their single, five-year term. Choi was “a person who stood with me during the hardest moment in my life,” Park said in her speech, apparently referring to the assassinations of Park’s mother and later her father, the dictator Park Chung-hee. Choi's late father, Choi Tae-min, headed a now-defunct religious sect and was close to Park during and after the presidency of her father, Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated in 1979. Choi Soon-sil has been portrayed in Korean media as having inherited her father's influence over Park, while South Korean media have characterized Choi Tae-min's religious group as a cult and alleged that Park held a shamanistic ritual at the presidential compound. '”

In another exceptional moment, Park denied media speculation that she had “fallen into worshipping cult religions or that shamanistic rituals were held at the presidential Blue House.”

Her comments come at what may well prove to be the crucial moment of her presidency.
The President of South Korea Park Geun-hye accepts full blame for the scandal over the influence of religious figure Choi Soon-sil in Park's administration and vows to accept the results of an independent investigation into her actions.