South Korea's had a difficult year.
Months of the biggest protests ever seen there, then parliament voting for the first time ever to impeach the president.
The corruption scandal surrounding her now ensnares the head of the state-run pension fund - who is also a former health minister.
He has been detained for questioning by fraud investigators trying to track the movement of huge amounts of money - and whether massive bribes were paid.
The expanding probe into the corruption scandal is splitting the Saenuri Party of President Park Guen-hye. The 29 anti-Park MPs have defected to form a new conservative party which will campaign for reform.
The Saenuri party has been demoted to the second-largest in parliament.
What are the other political implications?
Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
BJ Kim, Adjunct Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Aidan Foster Carter, Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University
Jean Lee, Global Fellow at the Korea Center, Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC
