Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

The impeachment process against President Park Geun-hye, the first such action in South Korea since 2004, is the culmination of the 2016 South Korean political scandal. The impeachment vote took place December 9, 2016, with 234 members voting to impeach Park and suspend her from the office. As a result of the impeachment vote, Hwang Kyo-ahn, the Prime Minister of South Korea, became the acting president for up to 180 days while the Constitutional Court of Korea rules on whether to accept or reject the impeachment.

Background

Main article: 2016 South Korean political scandal

Revelations were made in 2016, that President Park Geun-hye aide, Choi Soon-sil, who did not have an official position in the government, had used her position to seek funds from the chaebol to two foundations she controls. Choi was arrested and Geun-hye eventually apologised three times to the country from October onwards, but the biggest protests in the country since the ouster of her father continued.

The protests lasted six weeks and Park's approval rating dropped to 4%, and according to Time, an opinion poll indicated that 78% of South Koreans supported her impeachment.

The last time a South Korean president had been impeached was in 2004, when Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by parliament and was suspended from duties for two months. In that case, the Constitutional Court of Korea overturned the impeachment and restored Roh to power. However, then South Korean public was in support of Roh.

Political developments

The 300-member National Assembly was scheduled to vote on an impeachment bill on December 9, when the legislative session ends. As impeachment requires a two-thirds majority, if 200 members voted to impeach, Ms. Park would be impeached and immediately suspended from office. There are up to 172 opposition and independent lawmakers who want Ms. Park removed, which meant at a minimum 28 of the 128 MPs from the ruling Saenuri Party must crossing the floor and join the opposition in supporting the impeachment measure for the vote to pass.

On December 3, at 4:10 am, 171 members of the Democratic Party, the People's Party, the Justice Party and Independent Representatives initiated the "President (Park Geun-hye) impeachment proposal" to the National Assembly for violating the Constitution and the law. In addition, Woo Sang-ho of the Democratic Party, Park Jie-won of the People's Party, and Roh Hoe-chan of the Justice Party made the motion.

Constitutional and law violations were suggested for specific reasons. The violation of the Constitution violated the duty of democracy in the sense that Choi Soon-sil and his aides interfered with the policy and influenced the state councils. They interfered with the personnel and violated the duty of official civil servants, pointed out that it violated the obligations of guaranteeing national property rights, protecting the market economy and protecting the Constitution. In addition, it failed to respond to the Sewol Ferry sinking accident that occurred on April 16, 2014 due to the failure to respond to the 10th amendment of the Constitution's "guarantee of the right to life," and to protect the lives and safety of the people did not actively take measures, he said. The violation of the law was judged by the founding company Mir and K-Sports, a corporation of Samsung, SK, and Lotte, with a total value of KRW 36 billion (US$54.18 million).

Saenuri initially wanted Park to voluntarily step down in late April, but with the protests by millions of people, the ruling party became divided on whether Park should step down voluntarily or be impeached. On December 4, members of Saenuri's non-mainstream factions declared that they will vote in favor of Park's impeachment.

Parliamentary motion

On December 8, the South Korean National Assembly announced that the vote of motion to impeach will take place in December 9th at 3:00 pm local time. As planned, on December 9, South Korean MPs approved the impeachment motion by a vote of 234 in favor and 56 against in a secret ballot. This implies that at least 28 and as many as 66 members of Saenurai Party voted in favor of impeachment. The Speaker of the National Assembly (who happens to be unaffiliated with any party) abstained from the vote. Two other MPs abstained from voting and seven votes were declared invalid.

As a result of the impeachment motion passing, President Park is suspended from the presidency for up to 180 days while the Constitutional Court of Korea decides about the validity of impeachment motion. Six of the nine judges on that court must agree with the impeachment for the removal to take effect. If the court agrees with the impeachment, it would be the first time that a sitting president is removed from the office since the Sixth Republic of South Korea was set up after the country's democratization.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has taken charge of the office of the presidency at 19:30 Korean Standard Time, on an interim basis. If Park leaves office early for any reason – whether through the impeachment being approved by the Constitutional Court or through her own resignation – a new presidential election must take place within 60 days. Frontrunners in public opinion polling to replace her in an election include Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Moon Jae-in, a former leader the opposition Democratic Party and runner-up to Park in the 2012 presidential election, and Lee Jae-myung, the mayor of the Seongnam.

Reactions

Protesters congregated outside the National Assembly hall where the voting session was held. Some 40 family members of the sinking of MV Sewol victims watched on as lawmakers cast their secret ballots. Citizens who have been rallying in massive numbers against Park rejoiced at the news, while Park’s staunch supporters called the parliamentary impeachment a “witch-hunt” without concrete evidence of Park’s wrongdoings. Some of them have gathered outside the National Assembly demanding the impeachment bill’s passage or opposing it.

Upcoming Constitutional Court decision

The Constitutional Court of Korea has up to 180 days to decide on the issue. It will hold public hearings to hear from both sides on whether the National Assembly had followed due process and the impeachment was justified. The nine members of the Constitutional Court are generally considered to be conservative-leaning, but according to Reuters, some former members of the court have said that the evidence in the Park case is very strong.

See also

• Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff