Welcome to Korea Finder.  The way this contest works is that each week a new image is posted and the first reader to accurately describe or locate the image gets a point.  At the end of the year the reader with the highest amount of points will win a Korea related book of their choice.

Who knows what is pictured in the below Google Earth image from South Korea?:

2016 Korea Finder Leaders Board

1. Comfortable Chairs – 9
2. MTB Rider – 7
3. Smokes – 4
4. Dd – 2, Setnaffa – 2
5. JoeC – 1, Nullscan -1, sfasdfsadf – 1

It is official President Park has been impeached:

The National Assembly passed the motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal, Friday.

Park was suspended from office at 7:03 p.m. immediately after the result was officially delivered to the presidential office, and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn began working as acting head of state.

The President’s fate is now in the hands of the Constitutional Court, which is expected to make a ruling on whether the impeachment was valid in a few months.

Park is the second Korean president to be impeached after the late President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004. Roh was able to return to office thanks to wide public support after the Constitutional Court overturned the Assembly’s decision.

The impeachment motion, signed by 171 opposition and independent lawmakers, passed overwhelmingly with 234 in favor, 56 against, two abstentions and seven invalid votes in the 300-member Assembly. Pro-Park lawmaker Choi Kyung-hwan of the ruling Saenuri Party was absent.

This well exceeded the necessary approval of two-thirds of the 300 lawmakers required for its passage. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but the most significant thing that has happened is that South Korea now has a new acting President which is Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn.

So who is Hwang?  His a 59 year old lawyer who worked as a state prosecutor for 30 years before entering politics.  He is well known for being a close confidant of President Park.  In 2013 he served as the Justice Minister for Park before becoming the Prime Minister in 2015.  ROK Heads may remember that back in July Hwang was detained by protesters outside of the selected THAAD site and pelted with eggs.

I doubt Prime Minister Hwang will make any major policy decisions because of his close ties to Park that could lead to widespread public protests.  That is why I think he will probably just be keeping the seat warm until the Constitution Court reviews the impeachment.  The last impeachment of a ROK President occurred in 2004 with President Roh Moo-hyun.  The Constitutional Court took 63 days to rule that the impeachment was not legal and he was reinstated.  Considering the widespread public outrage against President Park I doubt she will be reinstated.  However, the court has up to six months to rule on the legality of the impeachment.  If they rule the impeachment is legal then an election will be held 60 days after the ruling.  I think the conservative party will want this to drag on so they can select a candidate and organize a campaign to run against the Korean left wing parties who have taken maximum political advantage of the Park Geun-hye crisis.

It will continue to be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few months.

Things have gotten worse for the girl that started the down fall of the President of Korea by cheating at school, she has now lost her high school graduation diploma:

The education office in Seoul has annulled the high school graduation of Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of President Park Geun-hye’s confidant Choi Soon-sil, after finding out her grades and attendance were fabricated and she had not fulfilled the requirements to graduate.

It also asked the prosecution to investigate Chung, Choi and 10 others involved in the irregularities in managing Chung’s attendance, tests and grades, including teachers and school board members at Chungdam High School.

The decision came about two weeks after the Ministry of Education ordered Ewha Womans University to cancel Chung’s admissions due to the university’s favors in admissions and grading.

In her third year at the high school in 2014, Chung, a dressage competitor, was absent for 141 days with the excuse that she participated in competitions or training overseas. She submitted related documents to prove her participation and the school acknowledged her absence.

“Of the documents, those for 105 days of absence were fabricated,” said Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE), in a briefing, Monday.

The Korea Equestrian Federation falsely issued the documents although there was no training during the stated periods, he said. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but I think it is pretty ridiculous that anyone that would miss 141 days in one school year would be allowed to graduate no matter what the excuse is.

Not sure why North Korean state media is releasing photos that make #leadership appear to have ballooned but OK pic.twitter.com/bO2OBZOFZY

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) December 8, 2016

South Korean boy group Pentagon performs during a showcase to promote its second mini album “Five Senses” at a concert hall in Seoul on Dec. 6, 2016. (Yonhap)

I would think the last thing the North Koreans would want to do is create a provocation that would distract attention away from their great enemy Park Geun-hye being impeached and removed from office:

South Korea’s defense chief called on the military Thursday to remain vigilant as North Korea might carry out a provocation amid the ongoing political crisis involving President Park Geun-hye.

On Friday, 300 lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties are set to vote on an impeachment bill against Park. The country has been engulfed by a massive corruption scandal involving Park and her close confidante since late October.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo made the comments during his visit to the 3rd Army headquarters, one of the country’s three field armies in charge of protecting Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul from any military threats by North Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I love these comments from Admiral Harris:

U.S. Pacific Command Commander Adm. Harry Harris says those who served during the attack on Pearl Harbor never failed to stand for the national anthem.

His remarks at today’s ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack generated a lengthy standing ovation from the crowd, with people whistling and hooting. Thousands gathered for the event, held on a pier across the harbor from where the USS Arizona sank during the 1941 attack.

“You can bet that the men and women we honor today — and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago — never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played,” Harris said to nearly a minute of clapping, whistles and whoops.

“Hearing the words ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’ means something special for every American, every day,” Harris added. “But today, on Dec. 7th, it takes on extraordinary significance, as we’re joined here in this hallowed place by World War II veterans and survivors of the attacks on military bases all across Oahu, including right here at Pearl Harbor.”

In recent months, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and others have knelt through the national anthem to protest police brutality and the treatment of minorities, drawing criticism and acclaim alike. Athletes from many sports, from youth to professional levels, have followed Kaepernick’s lead.

Reached later, Pacific Command spokesman Robert Shuford said Harris’ comments “speak for themselves.”  [Star Advertiser]

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but the Korean left may be overplaying their hand with including the Sewol ferry tragedy as part of the reason for impeachment:

South Korea’s National Assembly on Thursday officially set the date for the vote on the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye who is at the center of the corruption scandal rocking the country.

The anonymous vote will take place on Friday during the parliamentary session at 3:00 p.m., with the fate of the president to be ultimately decided by the country’s Constitutional Court. Under the parliamentary law, an impeachment motion can be put up for vote 24 hours after being reported at the parliament.

The opposition parties handed in the motion to parliament last week, saying that Park violated the Constitution and other laws by allowing her confidante Choi Soon-sil to exert power in state affairs and enjoy unlawful benefits. State prosecutors have accused Park of being Choi’s accomplice.

A successful passage calls for approval from at least 200 lawmakers from the 300-seat National Assembly. Accordingly, at least 28 lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party must give it a nod, even if every single opposition and independent lawmaker votes for the impeachment.

A group of non-Park lawmakers in Saenuri said it has secured support from around 40 lawmakers, but uncertainties remain, with some casting doubts on the level of support.

While the group earlier asked the opposition parties to exclude the sinking of the Sewol ferry, which left more than 300 dead or missing, as one of the grounds for Park’s impeachment, the main opposition Democratic Party said it has no intention to do so.

The opposition parties claim Park failed to protect the safety of the people as stipulated by the Constitution.

The Park dissenters’ group said it will continue to persuade the opposition parties, adding the issue remains one of the major hurdles for Saenuri’s participation in the motion.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but like I have always said what does the political opposition think Park should have done when the ferry boat sunk?  Swim out into the ocean and rescue kids herself?  If they want to complain about lax safety regulations this has been an ongoing problem in Korea for decades long before Park ever took office.  It seems by trying to ram this into the impeachment proceedings will unnecessarily cause uncertainty now on whether the impeachment will pass.

Another sex club in Seoul has been broken up according to the Korea Times.  I had to chuckle when I read that even the janitor got a jail sentence.  Fortunately for all of them the sentences were suspended so they don’t have to actually go to jail if they stay out of trouble:

This is an imaginative scene at an adult sex club in Seoul called “Voyeurism Club” based on what the operators revealed in a criminal court on Dec. 4.

Seoul Central District Court punished the operators of the club that fed the sexual appetites for perverts, allowing visitors to have sex in an open space or watch others doing so.

The court sentenced the club’s chief operator, surnamed Won, 43, to 18 months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 15 million won ($12,000) fine for infringing the laws of punishing acts related to the sex.

Targeting those with “abnormally obscene desires,” Won managed the bar-like club in Gwanak-gu that he rented twice a month from May 2014 until last July.

The court said he paid two housewives to dance nude in front of visitors and provide sexual service to them.

He also offered 100,000 to 150,000 won admission to members of an online community for couples and single male office workers and asked them to act as prostitutes.

The court also sentenced the club’s pimp, 46, and janitor, 45, to six months’ jail, suspended for a year.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Park, during missing 7 hours when Sewol ferry sank, was getting her hair done? 박 대통령, 세월호 가라앉을때 ‘올림머리’ 하느라 90분 날렸다 https://t.co/6bK32anfPV

— James Pearson (@pearswick) December 6, 2016