Park calls for future leaders to serve two terms

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday called for constitutional reforms that could allow future presidents to serve two terms - as she struggles with plunging popularity ratings and a widening corruption scandal.

While its Constitution grants enormous power to the executive, South Korea is one of the only economically advanced liberal democracies to restrict the presidency to a single five-year term, with no possibility of re-election.

The limit was set back in 1987 as decades of military rule ended, and South Korea sought to pre-empt any return to extended periods of authoritarian control.