Former President Park Geun-hye, currently serving a 22-year prison term for corruption, will stay in hospital until February for multiple illnesses, the justice ministry said Monday.

When admitted to a hospital in southern Seoul on Nov. 22, Park had planned to stay there for about a month, but doctors now say that she needs at least six more weeks for treatment of back, shoulder and other ailments, according to the ministry.

This year, the 69-year-old Park was hospitalized three times due to her chronic shoulder and lower back pain. In 2019, she received shoulder surgery.

Park has been serving a combined 22-year prison sentence since March 2017 after being impeached and removed from office over far-reaching corruption charges and an influence-peddling scandal.

Park is expected to return to Seoul Detention Center in February unless she is pardoned or allowed a stay of execution of sentence. (Yonhap)