The president, the shaman and the scandal engulfing South Korea
多重危机笼罩下的韩国
广州韩语翻译公司：在经济增长停滞、地缘政治紧张局势加剧、一连串引人注目的企业问题爆发之际，朴槿惠总统被迫宣布愿意辞职。
Park Geun-hye was swept to power four years ago pledging to overhaul South Korea’s biggest family-owned companies. Today, the president stands accused of conspiring to extort millions of dollars from those same corporations, setting off a sprawling scandal that is paralysing the Asian country.
四年前，朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)上台执政时曾誓言要改革韩国的大型家族企业。如今，这位总统被控与他人共谋从这些企业榨取巨额资金，由此引发的不断扩大的丑闻正在让这个亚洲国家陷入瘫痪。广州韩语翻译公司。
The offices of big-name corporates from Samsung to Lotte have been raided by investigators, Ms Park’s closest aide has been indicted over alleged abuse of power and the president is battling state prosecutors to avoid scrutiny of her alleged role in the drama.
调查人员对包括三星(Samsung)、乐天(Lotte)在内的多家大企业的办公室进行了突击搜查，朴槿惠的核心幕僚已因涉嫌滥用权力被起诉，朴槿惠本人正在与检方抗争，企图逃避对其在此次事件中涉嫌扮演的角色的审查。
It is a scandal that is being played out in public, with each day bringing salacious new claims linking the presidential Blue House to shamanistic rituals, slush funds or one of a dizzying array of colourful characters from Seoul’s entertainment industry. At one stage the Korean leader was even forced to deny that she was a member of a cult.
这起公开上演的丑闻每天都伴随令人大跌眼镜的新爆料，称总统府青瓦台(Blue House)与萨满教仪式、贿赂资金或是首尔娱乐业知名人士有联系。朴槿惠一度甚至被迫出面否认自己是一个邪教组织的成员。广州韩语翻译公司。
Graft is not new in South Korea. Five of its six directly elected presidents have been ensnared in scandals, while executives from the country’s top family-owned conglomerates, the chaebol, are frequently hauled in for questioning and regularly face trial. Yet this saga is on a different scale.
贪腐现象在韩国并非新鲜事。韩国六位通过直接选举产生的总统中，有五人都陷入了丑闻，而韩国最大一些家族企业集团（或称“财阀”(chaebol) ）的高管们经常被带走接受问询，也经常面临审判。然而，此次丑闻的严重程度不同以往。
South Korea is facing what experts call a “compounded crisis”. At a time of faltering economic growth, heightened geopolitical tensions and a series of high-profile corporate problems, the country has found itself leaderless and in disarray. “South Korea is in a state of total crisis,” says Moon Chung-in, a professor of political science at Yonsei University in Seoul. “We have intertwined political, geopolitical and economic crises ... and no leadership to mend the fractures or drive society.”
韩国正面临一场专家所称的“复合式危机”。在经济增长停滞不前、地缘政治紧张局势加剧、一连串引人注目的企业问题相继爆发之际，这个国家却发现自己陷入了群龙无首、一片混乱的状态。“韩国正处于全面危机状态，”首尔延世大学(Yonsei University)政治学教授文正仁(Moon Chung-in)表示，“我们面临着相互交织的政治、地缘政治及经济危机……却没有一个能够收拾残局或推动社会的领袖。” 广州韩语翻译公司。
Influence peddling
以权谋私
There is a growing sense in the country that Ms Park — its first female leader — has lost her mandate to rule and lacks the strength or conviction to take on the chaebol and carry out the reforms she promised while campaigning for the presidency in 2012.
在韩国，越来越多的人感到，作为韩国首位女总统的朴槿惠已丧失统治这个国家的授权，她缺乏对付大财阀以及实施2012年竞选总统时承诺的改革所需的能力或信念。
Her approval rating stands at 4 per cent — down from 63 per cent in 2013 and the lowest ever for a president of the east Asian nation — after weeks of allegations that she had become reliant on a shadowy confidante who influenced a litany of presidential decisions, including key speeches and policy ideas.
朴槿惠的支持率已从2013年的63%跌至4%，为韩国历任总统支持率最低纪录——此前数周她一直被指责依赖一位闺蜜，后者左右了一连串的总统决策，包括重要演讲和政策理念。
The friend, Choi Soon-sil, allegedly used her position to extort tens of millions of dollars from top South Korean companies — a scheme in which, prosecutors say, Ms Park was an active collaborator. Ms Park denies the conspiracy claims. Her lawyer called them “nothing more than ideological reflections of imagination and speculation, ignoring objective evidence”.
这位闺蜜崔顺实(Choi Soon-sil)涉嫌利用朴槿惠的地位从韩国顶级企业榨取数千万美元。韩国检方称，朴槿惠在其中扮演了积极的共谋角色。朴槿惠否认了这些共谋指控。她的律师称这些指控“不过是想象和猜测在观念形态上的反映，罔顾客观证据”。广州韩语翻译公司。
