【经济学人】丑闻四处播散，总统蹒跚难行|2016年11月5日|总第718期

“ARE we living in the Republic of Choi?” asks the Korea Times, a local newspaper. It is the question that has consumed South Korea for the past fortnight, and filled columns of conjecture . Park Geun-hye, the conservative president, has admitted that she turned to an old friend, Choi Soon-sil, for advice on matters of state, even though she had no official position in government. But press reports and opposition politicians suggest that Ms Choi’s influence went much further: that she was in effect a puppeteer controlling Ms Park’s administration, deciding everything from cabinet appointments to policy on North Korea and, prosecutors claim, using her clout to obtain money and favours.

《韩国时报》质问，“我们活在崔姓国家中吗？”。过去两周，这一问题成为大众消费韩国的谈资，并且各类推测的专栏层出不穷。保守党领导人朴槿惠承认，她曾就国家事务求助甚至没有任何政府官职的老朋友崔顺实。但是，新闻报道和反对派政客认为崔顺实女士的影响远不止如此：检察官指控，她实际上是控制朴槿惠女士行政的傀儡师，能决定韩国政策制定内阁会议的任何事情，她还利用自身影响力谋取金钱和特别照顾。

• conjecture：推测，猜想。

• clout：敲打，猛打; （尤指政治上的）影响。

In an effort to contain the explosion of popular anger at the revelations, Ms Park has in the past week fired ten of her aides, including her chief of staff; reshuffled the cabinet; and appointed a new prime minister, Kim Byong-joon. Mr Kim was an aide to Roh Moo-hyun, a liberal former president, and so is notionally a political opponent of Ms Park. His appointment is therefore supposed to be an overture to the opposition. On November 3rd Mr Kim said he would “use 100%” of his rights as prime minister, suggesting a more expansive role for a position that is mostly ceremonial—though whether the National Assembly will approve his appointment is unsure. Cho Kuk of Seoul National University says the president, whose party recently lost its parliamentary majority but who has 15 months of her single five-year term left, is not just a lame duck, but a “dead duck”.

为了能够遏制住公众对泄密事件不断扩大的愤怒，在过去的一周，朴槿惠解雇了包括参谋长在内的十多位部下，重组了内阁，并且任命金秉准为新总理。金秉准曾是前自由党领导人卢武铉的部下，他理论上也是朴槿惠的反对派政客。因此，金秉准的上台拉开了反对政党登场的序幕。11月3日，金秉准宣称他将会充分地利用总理的权利，提议设立一个只能更为广泛的职位—主要用于形式上，即使国民大会是否会通过对他的任命仍未知。首尔国民大学的Cho Kuk指出，总统朴槿惠所在的党派近期失去了大多数的国会席位，但是她还有剩下15个月的任期。所以说，她并不是一位快要下台的过气总统，而是一位已经死路一条的总统。

• overture：器乐前奏曲; 序曲，序乐; 序诗; 主动表示，提议。

Ms Park had apologised publicly after JTBC, a local cable-television network, said last month that it had found edited presidential speeches and cabinet-meeting briefs on a discard ed computer used by Ms Choi. The president said that she had consulted her friend with good intentions, and that Ms Choi had in the past helped her “through a difficult time”.

在当地的有线网络电视台JTBC上个月报道已经证实了崔顺实用她自己废弃的电脑“审阅”总统演讲稿件和内阁会议简报，朴槿惠曾为此进行了公开道歉。总统表示她向她的朋友征询过好的意见，且崔顺实女士过去曾帮助她“度过了一个困难的时期”。

• discard: 放弃的；删除的

Her relationship with the Choi family is no secret, though its details are fuzzy and the subject of popular lore. Soon after the president’s mother was assassinate d in 1974, with a bullet that was meant for her father (then-president Park Chung-hee), Ms Park was befriended by Ms Choi’s father, Choi Tae-min. He is the founder of a cult called the Church of Eternal Life, and claimed that he could contact her dead mother. Ms Park spoke at one of his services in 1975. In a diplomatic cable from 2007 released by WikiLeaks, a whistle-blowing website, the American embassy in Seoul reported rumours that the late Choi had had “complete control” over Ms Park’s “body and soul during her formative years and that his children accumulated enormous wealth as a result”.

朴槿惠与崔家的关系早已人尽皆知，不过其中细节人们就不得而知了。1974年，一颗本来瞄准朴槿惠的父亲（当时的总统朴正熙）的子弹却误杀了朴槿惠的母亲，在这之后不久，朴槿惠在崔顺实的父亲崔太敏的照料下走出了阴影。崔太敏是邪教“永生教”的创始人，并且宣称他可以与朴槿惠已故的母亲交流。在1975年，朴槿惠谈及了其中一次宗教仪式。著名揭秘网站维基解密泄露了一份来自2007年的外交电报，美国驻首尔大使馆就这些流言做出报道，宣称已故的崔太敏在朴女士成长过程中就已经“完全控制”她的身体和灵魂，从而他的孩子们积攒了巨大的财富。

• assassinate：暗杀

• cult :邪教

从左至右：林正熙、朴槿惠、崔太敏

Now Ms Choi is accused of using her presidential connections to convince some of South Korea’s biggest firms to funnel 80bn won ($70m) into two cultural foundations she controlled, K-Sports and Mir, for her personal benefit. She returned to South Korea from Germany on October 30th to face questioning by prosecutors, who have requested a warrant for her arrest on charges of fraud and abuse of power. Ahn Chong-bum, one of the fired presidential aides, is also being interrogate d on suspicion of pressing the conglomerates (some of which are being questioned). Ms Choi said she had “committed a crime” that she “deserved to die for”, but has denied allegations of corruption and influence-peddling . Claims of wrongdoing have now spread from her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra (who is thought to have received favours at a prestigious university thanks to her family’s connections) to her sister and niece.

韩国检察官对崔顺实进行调查，指控其为了个人利益，利用与总统的关系迫使韩国的一些大公司向她控制的两个文化基金会mir财团和k体育财团捐款八百亿韩元（约7000万美元）。10月30日，崔顺实刚从德国回到韩国就面临检方的传唤，检方以涉嫌诈骗和滥用权力罪名要求正式逮捕她。被开除的总统高级秘书之一安钟范也因涉嫌逼迫大财团（其中一些企业正在被调查）而被审问调查。崔顺实表示自己犯了死罪，但她否认了自己贪污受贿，以权谋私的罪行。 （期待您的翻译，您可以将翻译留言到文章底部，第二天会有详细解析哦。）