Tag: politics

Here is the latest twist and turn in the South Korean Presidential political crisis:

President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday she will go the full distance with the impeachment process and has no intention of voluntarily stepping down.

Ahead of the scheduled National Assembly vote on a presidential impeachment motion Friday, Park met with Saenuri Party Chairman Lee Jung-hyun and floor leader Chung Jin-suk at the Blue House. After the 55-minute meeting, which was proposed by Park, Chung returned to the ruling party and made public Park’s position on the fate of a presidency gravely threatened by an influence-peddling and abuse of power scandal.

“If the impeachment process is moved forward as scheduled, and if the motion is passed, I am ready to stay calm and composed during the Constitutional Court’s deliberation on the legality of the impeachment,” Park was quoted as saying. “When the impeachment is passed, I will accept it and do all my best under that circumstance.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but according to the article the constitutional court has up to six months after impeachment to determine its legality.

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]

You can read more at the link.

It appears that one way or another President Park is not going to complete her little over one year remaining in office after this announcement:

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called on parliament to determine her fate, saying she will step down in line with a timetable and procedures reached by political parties that can minimize any confusion arising from a government change.

Opposition parties dismissed the call as part of a political gambit to stall for time and thwart their impeachment push, stressing they won’t break ranks and will continue their move to oust the president.

During her third address to the nation over the corruption scandal centered on her confidante Choi Soon-sil, Park renewed her apology for her inability to address mounting public fury, but repeated her denial of any involvement in the scandal.

Earlier this month, the prosecution cited Park as an accomplice in “considerable parts” of the alleged wrongdoings carried out by Choi and her former aides — allegations denied by the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

“I will entrust the National Assembly with (the task of) making decisions on issues, including the shortening of my presidential term,” she said during the five-minute address. Her single, five-year term ends in February 2018.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I think President Park probably does not want to put her political party members in a tough situation in regards to whether or not to support the impeachment vote coming up.  Offering to resign buys her political party time to organize a campaign for a person to replace her.  After she resigns elections are supposed to be held in 60 days.  It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out for President Park.

I did not realize that the only Asian who spoke at the Republican National Convention was a Korean-American that was part of Donald Trump’s National Diversity Coalition.  She recently gave an interview to the Joong Ang Ilbo about the election of Donald Trump:

Among the speakers for the 2016 Republican National Convention in July was Lisa Shin, a Korean-American ophthalmologist. She was the only Asian-American who spoke at the event. Dr. Shin has served as one of the 60 advisers to the National Diversity Coalition for Trump, the U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign organization established with the stated aim of reflecting the will of ethnic minorities in America.“I think for Hillary, she had a lot of paid people,” said Dr. Shin during a phone interview with the JoongAng Ilbo. “But I didn’t hear a lot about grass-roots activists like I did with Trump. I believe that there was so much momentum, energy and enthusiasm with Trump. Hillary was disconnected from the people. She was what we call elite. She thought she was privileged.”

Dr. Shin is expected to play an advisry role representing Korean-Americans in the Trump administration, although she has not received any formal requests from the transition team yet. The following is an excerpt from the interview.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest of the interview at the link.  It will be interesting to see if she receives an appointment somewhere within the Trump administration.

The Associated Press has an article published which looks at how each President of the Republic of Korea since its founding has had scandals of some kind mar the end of their presidencies:

 If there’s one thing that South Korean presidents dread more than the looming threat of rival North Korea, it may be this: becoming an ex-president.

Nearly all former presidents, or their family members and key aides, have been embroiled in scandals at the close of their terms or after leaving office. There have been corruption allegations, coups — even a suicide and an assassination.

Now, South Korean prosecutors say they believe current President Park Geun-hye, facing historic levels of unpopularity as she approaches her last year in office, conspired in the criminal activities of a confidante who allegedly exploited her presidential ties to force businesses to donate money to two foundations she controlled.

Here’s a look at the troubles faced by South Korean presidents over the years:  [Associated Press]

What is probably the most disappointing thing about President Park Geun-hye for many Koreans is that they thought she would at least be a relatively scandal free Presidency since she had few immediate family members to create corruption scandals like past presidencies.  However, her lack of immediate families members were replaced by cult figures that went on to do the same things that got past South Korean presidents in trouble.

good summary on how Korea's presidential scandal is sucking in Samsung, the crown jewel of the economy. https://t.co/OehslupBJS via @WSJ

— Geoffrey Cain (@geoffrey_cain) November 23, 2016

이야 이건 진짜 센스가ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ pic.twitter.com/Z9BDGyu5CG

— 석류 (@Ryu_suni) November 12, 2016

This is the lowest I can remember any Korean President’s approval rating going:

Investigators have been declining to comment on possible investigation into Park, and they have not suggested that she profitted from the scandal either.

Despite suspicions by many in the country that Park profitted from the scandal, no president since Roh Tae-woo, who left office in 1993, has ever been implicated in using the office to amass personal wealth, although relatives and close associates have done so, with many going to jail for their misdeeds.

Park’s approval rating remained at a record-low 5 percent this week, according to local pollster Gallup Korea.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Splashed across p6 of #NorthKorea’s main newspaper: photos of rally in #SouthKorea vs #ParkGeunHye (published without credit) #RodongSinmun pic.twitter.com/lwUMTuezHt

— Jean H. Lee (@newsjean) November 13, 2016

Protesters hold mock funeral for President Park Geun-hye in central Seoul. Hundreds of thousands here, by some estimates. pic.twitter.com/KhKarghn8D

— James Pearson (@pearswick) November 12, 2016