Choi Sun-sil

Choi Soon-sil is one of those figures who became globally infamous almost overnight — before 2016, most people outside South Korea had never heard of her, and then suddenly she was everywhere. A Dankook University graduate with a resume that reads like a random assortment (businesswoman, restaurant owner, translator, real estate investor), she had been quietly wielding extraordinary influence over President Park Geun-hye for years, allegedly reviewing presidential speeches and steering government policy with zero official authority. When that came out, it was genuinely jaw-dropping — the kind of scandal that sounds like fiction. The 2018 conviction for corruption and a 20-year sentence confirmed what the public already suspected. Whatever you think of Korean politics, her story is a masterclass in how proximity to power, without any accountability, can unravel an entire government.

Name (English)

Choi Sun-sil

Name (Japanese)

崔順実

Reading

ちぇ・すんしる

Born

June 23, 1956 (age 70)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Monkey

Origin

South Korea, United States

Occupation

businessperson / cult leader / real estate entrepreneur / translator / restaurant owner

University

Dankook University

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B4%94%E9%A0%86%E5%AE%9F

Tags

• businessperson
• cult leader
• real estate entrepreneur

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.