South Korean President Park leaves PH after Apec meet

SKOREA-FRANCE-DIPLOMACY-CLIMATE

South Korean President Park Geun-Hye delivers a speech during a joint opening ceremony for South Korea-France economic and academic forums at a hotel in Seoul on November 4, 2015. AFP FILE PHOTO

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has left Manila after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, which the Philippines hosted this year.

She departed from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport shortly before 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

Park attended the Apec Economic Leaders’ meeting in Manila amid calls for her resignation in her country. Dubbed as the largest anti-government protest in South Korea in recent history, tens of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets of Seoul on Saturday to demand Park’s ouster.

READ: Amid resignation calls in S. Korea, President Park now in PH for Apec | Aquino, South Korean president discuss OFWs, AFP modernization

Park, the first woman president of South Korea, is the daughter of former president Park Chung-hee. She also ranked 11th in Forbes Magazine’s “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” list.

Park and President Benigno Aquino III met at Sofitel last Wednesday for a closed-door bilateral meeting, where the South Korean president pitched better benefits for overseas Filipino workers.

“[President Aquino] said he hoped KOR will positively consider proposed amendments to the Social Security Agreement so that it may be finally concluded to enable our peoples to fully maximize its benefits,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. told the media. RAM

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