Last Friday, the special prosecutor team attempted to search the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, but was denied entry on the ground of state confidentiality concerns. 

President Park has, however, been receptive to the possibility of in-person questioning. The location is likely to be either inside Cheong Wa Dae or a government estate outside the presidential residence. 

It would mark the first time ever for a sitting South Korean president to be interrogated by law enforcement authorities if the plan is carried out as planned.

The envisioned enquiry is likely to focus on what role the president played in Samsung Group's financial contributions to cultural foundations controlled by Choi Soon-sil, an imprisoned long-time friend of the president. 

Also, it will touch on her role in crafting a blacklist, through which cultural figures and artists were unconstitutionally discriminated against. Park has repeatedly denied those charges.  

Park is also likely to be grilled over suspicions involving the seven hours immediately following the sinking of a South Korean ferry on April 16, 2014, off the country's southwest coast.

She has been reported to have stayed in her residential quarters inside Cheong Wa Dae before making her first public appearance after the sinking. More than 300 people, mostly teenagers on a school field trip, were killed in the accident.

"There will be only a single chance to interrogate Park in person," a special counsel official said, vowing thorough preparation.

An official on the presidential side said they will use the enquiry as a chance to "rectify what is wrong and illuminate what needs to be legally clarified." (Yonhap)