INTERNATIONAL: Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye has left the hospital on Thursday ,March 24, nearly three months after being released from prison where she has spent around five years after being convicted of corruption.

Park, 70, became the country's first democratically elected leader to be kicked out of office when the Constitutional Court upheld a parliament vote in 2017 to impeach her over a scandal which also landed the chiefs of two conglomerates, Samsung and Lotte, in jail.

Park has smiled as she left the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul dressed in a dark navy coat and holding a purse. "I offer my greetings to people after five years," she has said. "I have recovered my health a lot." She has declined to answer reporters' questions.

Some 40 supporters have cheered as Park, the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, has appeared. Dozens of officials who served in her administration and her conservative political party have also gathered to offer their best wishes.

The Supreme Court last year upheld Park's sentence of 20 years in prison for colluding with a friend, who was also jailed, to receive millions of dollars from the companies, mostly to fund her friend's family and non-profit groups.

^{PHOTO: SOUTH KOREA'S FORMER PRESIDENT, PARK GEUN-HYE, BEING DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL / SOUNDBITE FROM PARK / EXTERIOR OF SAMSUNG MEDICAL CENTRE}