Massive pro-, anti-Park protests held in S Korean capital

Massive crowds of protesters have converged on the streets of the South Korean capital Seoul for the eighth straight week demanding the swift ouster of the country's president amid a counter-rally by her supporters.

Protesters marched Saturday on the Constitutional Court whose nine justices are considering the validity of the impeachment bill passed by the national assembly more than a week ago against President Park Geun-hye, urging her immediate resignation and pushing for the high court to abruptly remove her from office and allow for her criminal prosecution.

Although Park has been stripped of her substantial executive powers, she is allowed to retain the title of presidency and continue to live in the presidential Blue House while the court, which has 180 days to make a ruling on the case, deliberates.

This is while several thousands of Park's loyalists waged their own rally near the court earlier in the day to demand that the impeachment bill be dismissed.

Waving national flags and clutching red roses, pro-Park demonstrators carried banners denouncing the anti-Park protests as a "leftist conspiracy."

Many of Park’s supporters are elderly voters who remain committed admirers of her father, the late military dictator Park Chung-hee - credited with South Korea's economic transformation but also vilified as an authoritarian rights abuser.

The development came as the country's opposition-controlled parliament voted last week to impeach Park over an explosive corruption scandal that saw millions protest over consecutive weekends.

This is while lawmakers tried to inspect records at the president's office on Friday, but were denied entry. The legislators had planned to look into allegations that Blue House security authorities allowed Park’s long-time friend Choi Soon-Sil - who is currently awaiting trial for fraud and embezzlement - and her key associates to easily move in and out of the presidential offices and residence.

Meanwhile, Park's lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, has argued that the court should restore her powers because there is insufficient evidence to justify her unseating. He and other members of Park's legal team submitted a 24-page rebuttal of the impeachment charges to the court explaining why they lacked any legal merits.

"We can't accept that there was any violation of the constitution by the president... the impeachment motion should be rejected," Lee told reporters.

Park was impeached on numerous counts of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect the people's lives to bribery and abuse of power.

Most of the charges stemmed from a probe into a scandal involving Choi. Prosecutors named Park a suspect in the case, insisting that she had colluded in Choi's efforts to coerce major corporations to give donations worth tens of millions of dollars to organizations under her control.

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