South Korea has been rocked by a large scale scandal recently involving President Park Geun-hye and massive corruption charges. Ten senior political secretaries and multiple other government officials are being asked to resign in what could be one of the biggest scandals in South Korea’s political history.

President Park Geun-hye is also being asked to resign by tens of thousands of South Koreans amid a controversy that is being glossed over by the media.

CNN is reporting that many citizens have taken to protesting in the streets for Park Geun-hye’s resignation following a 90-second on-air apology she issued after the scandal broke that a secret shadow group was puppeteering the South Korean President and her cabinet, and that millions of dollars of profiteering was involved.

Arirang News posted up some of the footage of Geun-hye’s apology.

Sites like CNN and NPR are stating that a friend involved with giving Park advice on her speeches also had access to confidential government material and was funneling money to private channels. The power broker in question would be Choi Soon-sil, who first came to light in this conspiracy when people began investigating into her daughter’s attendance at a “prestigious” college for women called Ewha University.

According to NPR, people began noticing discrepancies with Choi’s daughter – such as receiving preferential treatment and gaining incomprehensibly high grades with extra credit. This caused people to begin investigating the financial ties to Choi’s daughter and the school, and then into Choi herself.

Like all common scandals, investigators began following the money, which led them to Choi Soon-sil, which led them to an abandoned computer that implicated the President’s involvement with Choi. According to The Guardian Choi has been implicated in funneling up to $70 million from major conglomerates into private, non-profit organizations.

NPR tries to gloss over a far more serious issue, writing…

“[The President’s] approval rating has hit an unprecedented low of 14 percent and Park’s ordered all 10 of her senior aides to resign, following revelations an unelected, unappointed confidant was receiving advance copies and altering dozens of confidential policy speeches. They have led to charges that the friend is a secret “puppet master” and the real power behind “the throne.””

But what the media isn’t talking about is the more bizarre and outlandish aspect of the story involving a conspiracy of what some people are calling the “8 Goddesses scandal”.

Images about the conspiracy were spreading around the anonymous imageboards by Korean users, who explained that eight power brokers in South Korea, all females, were pulling strings for the country behind the scenes and had the ear of the President, Park Geun-hye.

It seemed silly at first, but NPR and the New York Times alluded to a “Rasputin”-like influence that had the ear of the President. This “Rasputin” is a certain South Korean Shaman from a deep religious sect. Choi and the alleged “Rasputin”, along with the other goddesses, were allegedly controlling Park’s decision making and influencing the direction of the country. The cult-like behavior was further detailed on a blog called Ask A Korean!, where some individuals speculated that Park was involved in ritualistic ceremonies.

Whistleblowers supposedly had pointed out this kind of corruption several years ago, informing the government and media about it, but according to anonymous chan users, when the whistleblowers first came forward about the info people didn’t believe them. Some of the users stated that these whistleblowers were jailed, but there have been no mainstream news reports to verify that part of the story.

However, according to Bloomberg, following more whistleblowers and investigation reports coming to light, they stated that this corrupt shadow organization may have affected more than what Park is letting on, writing…

“Park’s hastily arranged address fanned suspicions that Choi may have meddled more extensively in government affairs, as well as peddling influence over businesses. Students and civic groups are protesting, demanding a full investigation and response from Park over the allegations.”

The chan conspiracy was also covered in depth by Break.com, which pointed to another group that might have ties to this corruption known as the Megalians, who are a group of anti-male feminists.

The radical feminist group were briefly in the news regarding what some dubbed the “Korean #GamerGate”. The South Koreans have been protesting the group, according to Break.com, after the Megalians tried to start a boycott of game company Nexon over claims of patriarchal misogyny, which spawned from an incident involving a voice actress amicably parting ways from the development studio after she wore a Megalia t-shirt and a public outcry took place. This particular incident was covered by a couple of outlets, including sites like Kotaku earlier this year.

Other sites like Korea Bang also covered the rise of the Megalians and their radical feminism in South Korea, along with Quartz, who said that the Megalia group — which came to prominence in June of 2015 — is battling against rampant “deep-seated misogyny” in South Korea.

As pointed out by the Korea Expose, Megalia has received most of its criticism for its stark hatred directed toward men and its unfiltered, 4chan-like atmosphere.

Some have questioned why the government has not put the Megalians under the microscope and why they have not come under fire from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family given their stark extremism.

We briefly reported on the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family during our look into how the South Korean Government has been making it increasingly difficult for youth to play video games. In fact, the Ministry of Gender Equality have been focusing a majority of their time fighting against porn and video games. Moreover, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family labeled video games as one of the ”four evils” that plague South Korean society, along with gambling and drug addiction.

As Break.com points out, there’s no actual concrete connection between the eight goddesses conspiracy and the Megalians, but a lot of people have been calling this whole ordeal an anime plot come to life.

(Main image courtesy of Korea Press Production)