Opposition party pushes for President's overseas travel ban

By Park Si-soo

The opposition Justice Party on Monday declared President Park Geun-hye's impeachment as its top priority and is seeking the cooperation of other opposition parties to unseat the scandal-plagued head of state.

The third biggest party in the National Assembly has pressed the prosecution to impose an overseas travel ban on the President and take legal action to take her to the prosecution office for questioning.

The move came one day after the prosecution identified Park as an accomplice and a "criminal suspect" while indicting her long-time friend, Choi Soon-sil, on criminal charges including extortion and abuse of official power.

In angry reaction, the presidential office called the investigation result a "house of cards" built without concrete evidence. Park's defense lawyer said the President would not cooperate with the prosecution's request to question her, an embarrassing turnabout from her earlier cooperative attitude.

It is unclear whether the prosecution will seek an overseas travel ban on the President and other forcible measures to question her, because the prosecution is under Park's control and, above all, doing so could political risks.

But it is clear that few are supporting Park's idea of flying to Tokyo next month to attend a trilateral summit with her Chinese and Japanese counterparts.

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