Mired in an influence-peddling scandal and suffering single-digit approval ratings, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has another headache: an embarrassing admission that her office procured more than 300 erectile-dysfunction pills for the presidential plane.
Officials with president’s office say the brand-name and generic Viagra pills were for treating altitude sickness on visits to African capitals, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.
What’s more, “The pills were not used, said Jung Youn-kuk, spokesman of the presidential Blue House,” the Guardian reported. “South Korean doctors sometimes prescribe Viagra-style drugs to climbers because they are believed to be effective in preventing altitude sickness.”
As Reuters reported on Nov. 10, the latest Gallup presidential approval poll shows Ms. Park with a stunning 90 percent disapproval rating, and a zero percent approval by Koreans under the age of 30.
Korean voters will select the nation’s next president on Dec. 20, 2017, but it could well get a new chief executive before then. Opposition parties in the National Assembly on Sunday reportedly set in motion a process that could result in Ms. Park’s impeachment and possible removal from office.
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