Embattled Park faces crucial week amid impeachment push

South Korea's embattled President Park Geun-hye faces a pivotal week, with an effort to impeach her gaining support from within her own party and the heads of the country's biggest business groups set to give testimony to a parliamentary committee.

Three opposition parties introduced a bill on Saturday to impeach Park, who is accused of abuse of power, putting her in danger of becoming the first democratically elected South Korean leader to leave office early.

"The chances of the impeachment bill passing on Dec 9 are 50-50," Woo Sang-ho, parliamentary leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, told a party meeting on Monday.