SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's president says she will allow parliament to choose her prime minister as she tries to defuse an escalating influence-peddling scandal.

The announcement Tuesday by Park Geun-hye is a major concession that could severely curtail her ability to govern in the year she has left in her term.

The prime minister Park nominated last week as a way to settle growing anger will apparently be replaced. But opposition and ruling party lawmakers must first agree on someone else.

Earlier Tuesday prosecutors raided the Seoul office of Samsung Electronics in connection with the scandal. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said the raid was part of investigation into the scandal centering on how much Park's longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil meddled in state affairs though she was not a government employee.