Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

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President Park Geun-hye, 2013.

The impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, the first such action against a sitting President of South Korea since 2004,[1] was the culmination of a political scandal involving the level of access to the presidency by an aide. The impeachment vote took place on December 9, 2016, with 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly voting to impeach Park and suspend her from the office.[2] As a result of the impeachment vote, Hwang Kyo-ahn, the Prime Minister of South Korea, became acting president for a term of 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
Protest against Park Geun-hye in Seoul, October 29, 2016

Revelations were made in late October 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 several business conglomerates (known as chaebol), including Samsung, Hyundai, SK Group and the Lotte Group, to two foundations she controlled.[3][4] Allegations also surfaced about Choi's access to Park's personal and work life, where it was said to have directly influenced, and interfered with the policy of, the state council.[5] The response to the Sewol ferry sinking accident that occurred on April 16, 2014 also contributed to Park's declining presidential ratings.[6]

Choi was arrested and Geun-hye eventually apologized three times to both the country and her cabinet, beginning in October, but protests against her continued. The protests lasted six weeks with Park's approval rating dropping to 4%, and according to a Time opinion poll, as of December 9, 78% of South Koreans supported her impeachment.[7]

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.[8] However, the South Korean public was by and large in support of Roh.[9] Despite the infrequency of impeachment, every presidency since the start of South Korea's democracy has ended in some form of scandal.[10]

Political developments

On December 3, at 4:10 am, Woo Sang-ho of the Democratic Party, Park Jie-won of the People's Party, and Roh Hoe-chan of the Justice Party moved the "President (Park Geun-hye) impeachment proposal" in the National Assembly on behalf of 171 members of their respective parties and other independent representatives, on the grounds that Guen-hye had violated the Constitution and the law.[11] Saenuri initially preferred Park to voluntarily step down in late April, but with mounting protests, 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 would vote in favor of Park's impeachment.[12]

The 300-member National Assembly was scheduled to vote on an impeachment bill on December 9, when the legislative session ended. As impeachment requires a two-thirds majority, if at least 200 members voted to impeach, Park would have been impeached and immediately suspended from her office. There were up to 172 opposition and independent lawmakers, which meant at a minimum 28 of the 128 MPs from the ruling Saenuri Party needed to cross the floor and join the opposition in supporting the impeachment measure for the vote to pass.[7]

Parliamentary motion

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn at Cabinet meeting in December 2016

On December 8, the South Korean National Assembly announced that the vote of motion to impeach would take place on December 9 at 3:00 pm local time.[13] 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 perhaps as many as 66 members of Saenuri 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.[14]

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.[8]

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has taken charge of the office of the presidency at 19:30 Korean Standard Time, on an interim basis.[15] 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.[9] Frontrunners in public opinion polling to replace her in an election include Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing 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.[9]

Reactions

Protesters congregated outside the National Assembly hall where the voting session was held. Some 40 family members of the victims of the sinking of MV Sewol 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 supporters called the parliamentary impeachment a “witch-hunt” without concrete evidence of Park’s wrongdoings.[16][17]

On December 10, hundreds of thousands gathered for a demonstration in celebration of the events.[18]

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.[9] The nine members of the Constitutional Court are generally considered to be conservative-leaning, as most of the members were appointed by Park's predecessor and two members by herself. According to Reuters, some former judges of the court have said that the evidence in the Park case is very strong, although no individuals were identified by name.[9]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Movement for the resignation of Park Geun-hye.

References

  1. ^ "South Korea opposition rejects Park's offer to quit, pushes impeachment". November 30, 2016 – via Reuters.
  2. ^ Choe Sang-hun (December 9, 2016). "South Korea Parliament Votes to Impeach President Park Geun-hye". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  3. ^ "South Korea prosecutors: President conspired with her friend". Associated Press. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  4. ^ "Prosecutors raid Lotte, SK, finance ministry over Choi scandal". The Korea Times. November 24, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  5. ^ "South Korea's presidential scandal". BBC News. December 9, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  6. ^ "This could be the week that ends Park Geun-hye's presidency in South Korea". Los Angeles Times. December 5, 2016.
  7. ^ a b Campbell, Charlie (December 9, 2016). "South Korea's Loathed President Park Geun-hye Has Been Impeached". TIME.com. Time. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  8. ^ a b "Park Geun-hye: South Korea lawmakers vote to impeach leader". BBC News. December 9, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d e Park, Ju-min; Kim, Jack (December 9, 2016). "South Korean parliament votes overwhelmingly to impeach President Park". Reuters. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  10. ^ "South Korea To Vote On Impeachment Of Scandal-Stricken President". NPR.org. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  11. ^ "South Korean opposition parties introduce bill to impeach scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye". The Independent. December 3, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  12. ^ "South Korean President To Wait For Court's Impeachment Verdict". Yahoo. December 6, 2016.
  13. ^ "Parlemen Korea Selatan tetapkan Pemakzulan Presiden Park besok". Tempo (in Indonesian). December 8, 2016.
  14. ^ Joo Youngjae; Huh Namseol (December 9, 2016). "[속보] 박근혜 대통령 탄핵소추안 가결···찬성 234·반대 56·무효 7·기권 2". KyungHyang (in Korean). Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  15. ^ "South Korea's Impeachment Process, Explained". The New York Times. November 28, 2016.
  16. ^ "Rakyat Korsel Rayakan Pemakzulan Presiden Park Geun-hye". detikcom (in Indonesian). December 9, 2016.
  17. ^ "Park Geun-hye Impeached". Korea Herald. December 9, 2016.
  18. ^ "South Koreans rally to celebrate Park ouster". PressTV. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
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