Defense Minister Han Min-koo (R) presides over a meeting of military leaders at the Joint Chiefs of Staff right after the National Assembly passed an impeachment bill against President Park Geun-hye in a vote of 234 for, 56 against and two abstentions on Dec. 9, 2016. (Photo courtesy of defense ministry) (Yonhap)
After being impeached by the National Assembly, President Park Geun-hye looks down as she convenes her last Cabinet meeting Friday, right before the vote that suspended her from office. She apologized to the nation again, and asked ministers to minimize any vacuum in government, and to work on the economy. / Korea Times
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.
ROK 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.
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, Minister of National Defense Han Min-koo and other government officials are trapped in a bus in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang, on Friday as an angry mob of residents protest the deployment of the Thaad system in their hometown. Hwang was also pelted with eggs and doused with water. [NEWSIS]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.
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.
It is looking like President Park Geun-hye will resign as the South Korean President in late April which means elections are supposed happen 60 days after that. That makes late June 2017 as the timeframe for the next ROK Presidential election:
A rift emerged in the opposition alliance to impeach President Park Geun-hye this week as last-minute talks among the leaders of three liberal parties broke down Thursday, while ruling party lawmakers united to promote an “orderly” resignation of the president in April.
Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, Rep. Park Jie-won, acting head of the People’s Party and Chairwoman Sim Sang-jeong of the Justice Party held a meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss a specific timeline for an impeachment motion in the National Assembly. Citing an agreement from the previous day, Choo and Sim said the motion must be submitted on Thursday to allow a vote today. Park disagreed. He said he opposed a vote that was guaranteed to fail.
The embattled president issued a public statement Tuesday saying she was willing to cut her term short. She asked the National Assembly to decide the fate of her presidency in response to a public clamor for her resignation over a still snowballing abuse of power scandal.
Her proposal was considered an alternative to impeachment. Since Tuesday, members of her own party who were supporting impeachment have swung to the idea of another kind of resignation, which has been code-named the “orderly” departure scenario.
Park won a five-year presidential term in the 2012 election and her tenure is scheduled to end in late February 2018. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
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