Has the ‘puppygate’ brought South Korean president down?

The impeachment process of South Korean president Park Geun-hye is learnt to have started with an argument over a puppy.

The Koreans are now calling it ‘puppygate’ and the media unraveled a series of events starting from an argument over looking after a puppy which later brewed as a big political crisis in the country. 

Former national fencer Ko Young-tae, 40 and the wife of a presidential confidante Choi Soon-sil, 60, are at the centre of the ‘puppygate’.

According to BBC’s Tessa Wong, Ko told a parliamentary committee that it all began in 2012, shortly after Park was elected president.

After retirement from fencing, the Asian Games gold medalist Ko took a day job with a clothing company called Villomillo.

One day a friend asked him to show some of Villomillo's latest products to a mysterious buyer.

"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," Ko recounted at a public hearing this week according to BBC report.

He began to supply handbags and clothes for Choi but those eventually ended up in President Park's wardrobe.

“I gave around 40 luxury handbags made of ostrich skin and crocodile leather, and 100 bespoke pieces of clothing to the president,” Ko reportedly told the parliamentary committee.

Choi and Ko got along well with the business and relationship though Ko denied the ‘toy boy’ allegation labelled against him by the media.

The most extraordinary event mentioned in the testimony was involving a puppy.

Ko described how trouble was brewing between him and Choi when in 2014, the businesswoman asked him to take care of her daughter's puppy.

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 Choi in his home, furious with him for abandoning the puppy. The two had a "huge fight", he said.

The rift in their relationship began and it went downhill.

"She treated me like a slave, swearing at me many times," he said in his candid account of his testimony according to BBC.

“Angry and hurt, Mr Ko decided to exact revenge by going to the press about Ms Choi and Ms Park's relationship,” the report added.

“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 all the evidence to a local broadcaster.

In October, Ko appeared in a TV interview where he alleged “Ms Choi's favourite thing" was to edit Park's presidential speeches.

The media started digging for evidence to verify his claim, and obtained a tablet containing selfies of Choi and files of presidential speeches.

The discovery, along with other revelations of Choi's allegedly suspicious business dealings, sparked public outrage and wide-ranging corruption inquiry involving corporate bigwigs and celebrities.

On the face of evidence of wrongdoing and public outcry, Park admitted that she gave Choi ‘inappropriate’ government access - including to her speeches. But she denied the allegations of corruption.

 She apologised but the apology could not save her job as president.

The president has now been impeached and Ko is hailed by the netizens for his "whistleblowing role".

A simple spat over keeping a puppy eventually led to the impeachment of a president.