Lee Yong-joo, a lawmaker from opposing People's Party, holds up a placard showing photographic evidence backing up his claim about President Park receiving injections, during a special parliamentary hearing on Wednesday. [Yonhap Photo]
The face of South Korea's first female President Park Geun-hye showed signs of "feeler" injections for beauty treatment to smooth wrinkles, a plastic surgeon said Wednesday.
Park's picture, taken in May 2014 and presented as evidence at a special parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, showed bruising marks around her mouth.
"That seems to be marks left by feeler injections," testified Kim Young-jae, a plastic surgeon who has provided skin care treatment for Park and her arrested crony, Choi Soon-sil.
Kim suggested that facial blood vessels appeared to have been ruptured in the course of injecting feelers used by beauty clinics to lift and firm the face without surgery. For smile lines around the mouth, a hyaluronic acid filler is used to restore lost cheek volume.
The surgeon admitted he had been called to the presidential residence occasionally for treatment of her skin trouble and swollen face. But he flatly denied he was involved in any plastic surgery or beauty treatment.
Like other ordinary women, Park, 64, has shown her keen interest in beauty care, hairdressing and grooming ever since she moved to the Blue House in early 2013.
What has become an object of public concern and debate is her absence for several hours when the ill-fated Sewol ferry packed with high-school students sank off the southwest coast in 2014 with the loss of more than 300 lives.
Park was impeached by parliament last week partly for neglecting her duty to supervise a rescue operation during the disaster. Government officials and coastguard authorities were criticized for failing to take quick steps.
The disgraced leader has been dogged by rumors that she came late because she was tied up with personal affairs.
Under mounting public pressure and criticism, the presidential office admitted that Park brought in a hairdresser from outside to have her hair done only for 20 minutes while reading written briefings on the ferry disaster.
Unconfirmed reports have suggested that Park frequently received beauty shots of unknown nature and unauthorized injections brought in by Choi who has been at the center of a corruption scandal.
The presidential clinic, however, argued that Park used to receive placenta injections at her residence not for beauty treatment but for health care.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
![[IMPEACHMENT] S. Koreas constitutional court defines Park as intolerable criminal](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2017/03/10/20170310130447580701.jpg)
![[IMPEACHMENT] Park faces unease life at her private home, possible prosecution](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2017/03/10/20170310131438211920.jpg)