Tag: South Korea

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.

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.

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.

Skiers dressed as Santa Claus ski down a slope at a ski resort in Gwangju, east of Seoul, to mark its opening on Dec. 2, 2016. (Yonhap)

Considering the media attention this is getting it seems somebody is bound to find this cat:

 The U.S. ambassador’s plea on social media for help finding a missing cat has generated a furry furor in South Korea’s media, which has taken up the effort to find the feline.

Ambassador Mark Lippert posted a picture of a cat named Nike on Facebook and Twitter, saying it had befriended his dog Grigsby and needs to be safely returned. The owners are offering a million won (about $855) reward for the cat, which went missing on Yongsan Garrison several weeks ago.

“Grigsby’s favorite US Embassy cat friend is missing!” the post says. “Please find Nike and return Grigsby’s best cat friend to him!”

South Korean media and online communities quickly took up the cause, publishing numerous stories and pictures of the flier.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more about the missing cat at the link.

I agree with this article that for the younger generation of Koreans the influence peddling scandal is to be expected, but the cheating to get Choi Soon-sil’s daughter into Ewha Women’s University is what really infuriates them:

A rigorously meritocratic education system lies at the heart of South Korea’s stellar rise from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War to Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

The system is highly competitive and can take a distressing toll on young students who devote their teenage years to studying for the national college entrance exam.

Admission to one of a handful of elite universities — such as Ewha — is seen as vital to a student’s future prosperity, social standing and even marriage prospects.

But however cut-throat it might be, there is steadfast public faith and trust in the exam’s fairness, with every applicant sitting the same paper on the same day, and a formalised marking system.

That faith is summed up in a term popular for decades, “a dragon from a ditch” — a person of modest means who rose to success through education and hard work.  (………..)

“But Chung and Choi shattered this faith and hope spectacularly,” it said.

The Stars & Stripes recently made it to the village of Taesong-dong located on the South Korean side of the DMZ:

Both villages are in the DMZ, an area about 160 miles long and 2½ miles wide marked by barbed wire and dotted with land mines.

A key difference is that the North Korean side is believed to be largely vacant — a Potemkin village that exists mainly to look pretty and broadcast round-the-clock propaganda and socialist songs that provide a constant soundtrack in Taesong-dong.

“It’s very loud,” Kim said, although the volume Tuesday was somewhat muted by windy conditions. “The residents hear it but don’t pay attention.”

With a population of just over 200, residency in Freedom Village is strictly limited to descendants of the original inhabitants or to women who marry men who live there. Men are not allowed to marry into the community because the government doesn’t want people to exploit the military service exemption, Kim said.

Residents can come and go, but they have an 11 p.m. curfew and must be present in the village for at least eight months of the year. The mayor said one of the biggest inconveniences is that they can’t receive pizza deliveries or online mail orders.

The trade-off for the bleak conditions is a tax-free income; free accommodation; land for rice paddies, red peppers, ginseng and other crops; and an elementary school with nearly as many teachers as students.

Despite the benefits, the aging population has declined in recent years, forcing the school to bus in students from nearby areas. Only four of the 29 students are from the village, officials said. There is no high school.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more about life at the village at the link.

Fortunately it appears no one was seriously hurt from this emergency landing at Osan AB:

A U.S. pilot escaped from a fighter jet after making an emergency landing during an aerial combat exercise, the United States Forces Korea (USFK) said Saturday.

The USFK said a pilot of F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron successfully escaped from his jet after landing at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The incident occurred at approximately 5 p.m.

The USFK said emergency teams have reached the pilot with authorities trying to determine the cause of the incident.  [Yonhap]

Here is the press release from Osan Airbase that shows that the pilot actually ejected from the aircraft while on the ground:

After landing from a training mission, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot ejected from an F-16 Fighting Falcon

assigned to the 36th Fighter Squadron at approximately 5 p.m.

The pilot was taken to the 51st Medical Group clinic and was listed in good condition.

“We are relieved that our Mustang pilot ejected safely, and is now in the good hands of our medical team,”

said Col. Andrew Hansen, 51st Fighter Wing commander. “We are currently focused on thoroughly

investigating the cause of this incident in order to minimize the chances of it happening again in the future.”

A board of officers will investigate the accident as part of a safety investigation board.  [Osan AB]

This is something that seems to happen from time to time which is random people getting killed by long forgotten landmines near the Korean DMZ:

A dump truck driver was killed in an apparent landmine explosion at a farm in Cheorwon Country, Gangwon Province, on Wednesday afternoon.

The man, surnamed Han, was severely injured while carrying stones and earth from a construction site to a nearby farm. He died in hospital.

From August to October, military authorities searched for landmines at the construction site near Pungam Dam using excavators. After the military confirmed there were no landmines, Cheorwon County began moving the excavated soil. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.