April 28, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] President Park Geun-hye is facing her biggest political crisis, embroiled in a scandal that involves some serious wrongdoings -- corruption, abuse of power and leaking sensitive information to her longtime friend.

Making her fall from grace even more humiliating has been the barrage of revelations that the country’s first female president may have undergone all sorts of anti-aging medical procedures -- even at Cheong Wa Dae when she should have been attending to her official duties. 

Photos of her taken between 2004 and 2016 have been circulated online, with online users alleging that she looks years younger now, with less wrinkles and brighter skin, compared to 12 years ago.

Adding fuel to the speculations, it was revealed earlier this week that the presidential office purchased injection doses of human placenta extract and vitamin shots commonly used for anti-aging and fatigue treatment, as well as pills which can treat erectile dysfunction, including Viagra.

According to Rep. Kim Sang-hee of the Minjoo Party of Korea, Park’s office purchased 323 kinds of medicine worth more than 20 million won between March 2014 and this August.

They include Laennec for administration via intravenous injection, made of human placenta extract and known to improve the function of liver, remove wrinkles and whiten skin. There was Fursultiamine, which is known to help prevent vitamin deficiency, aging and fatigue.

“Such injection shots are not prescribed to patients at university hospitals because their safety and effect are not verified,” Oh Sang-woo, family physician from Dongguk University was quoted as saying.

Among the medication list is also Emla 5 percent cream, which is used to narcotize a patient receiving a Botox treatment, laser skincare, or to have fillers injected for aesthetic purposes. Local doctors speculated that such a cream is not used for other purposes other than plastic surgery.

Cheong Wa Dae officially refuted the allegations in a statement Nov.24, saying that is not possible to perform plastic surgery at Cheong Wa Dae’s medical clinic. It added that the mass purchase of the injectable doses was for all the staff members working at its secretariat and security service at the presidential office.

In regard to the purchase of the lidocaine, which is a medication used to numb tissue in a specific area and to treat ventricular tachycardia, the main doctor at the presidential office said: “I am not convinced that lidocaine is used for a plastic surgery. It is to relieve pain of injuries staff members suffer.”

About Viagra and the generic version of the drug the presidential office purchased, Cheong Wa Dae said on Nov.23 that it was to ease possible mountain sickness during Park’s visit to high-altitude nations in Africa. In May, Park went on a trip to Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, whose capitals are some 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers above sea level.

The allegations over plastic surgery and use of injection shots surfaced earlier this month after local media broke news that Park received expensive medical care at the Chaum Clinic, which costs 150 million won in 2011. She was then a strong presidential hopeful ahead of the 2012 election.

She was then mocked publicly after it would found that she made appointments under the name Gil-la-im, the female lead in a local TV series Secret Garden. She is suspected of having not paid for the services, which legal sources say is bribery.

It was additionally reported that she even visited the Chaum clinic twice in 2013 during the day while serving as a president. One of the medical treatments was reportedly for anti-aging by doctor Kim Sang-man.

Kim Sang-man, is a doctor who worked at the Chaum Clinic for prescribing vitamin shots to President Park under the name of her confidante Choi Soon-sil. He was a family doctor for Choi and her family members. He was later appointed as one of the President’s medical advisors in 2013. After he left the Chaum clinic in 2014, he has headed Green Cross I-Med.

But speculations grew that Kim received special favors from the government for the dubious prescription for Park as all the injection drugs and vitamin shots were found to be made or imported by green Cross.

The prosecution said Nov.22 that it will investigate why Park received her prescriptions under Choi’s name at private medical clinics without the knowledge of the official presidential medical staff.

By Ock Hyun-ju /The Korea Herald (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)