By Constitution, leader may only be charged for criminal offense of insurrection or treason

A snowballing political scandal moved closer to embattled South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Thursday, with her newly nominated prime minister warning she could face a probe, hours after prosecutors detained a former presidential aide.

Ahn Jong-Beom was detained on Wednesday over suspicions that he helped Park's friend Choi Soon-Sil coerce companies into donating large sums to dubious nonprofit foundations that she then used for personal gains, the Yonhap news agency said.