Korean opposition parties agree to impeach President Park

Korea Times wrote that the main opposition Democratic Party on Tuesday rejected President Park Geun-hye’s offer to step down under a plan to be devised by National Assembly, calling it a ‘ploy to avoid impeachment.’ The opposition party said it would go ahead with its plan to impeach the President.

At the heart of the scandal is Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of a late cult leader and mentor who became close to Park after her mother’s assassination in 1974.

The embattled South Korean president announced Tuesday that she would make a public announcement amid a push by lawmakers for impeachment and growing public calls for her resignation.

Whether intentionally or not, she may have also effectively diminished the chances of untangling South Korea from its worst political quagmire in recent history that stemmed from a scandal involving herself and her confidante Choi Soon-sil.

A group of several ruling party lawmakers who previously favoured impeachment said after Park’s speech that lawmakers should first try to negotiate terms of her exit before seeking impeachment, Hwang Young-cheul, one of the lawmakers, told Reuters by telephone.

But Park’s announcement will likely bring that process to a halt – and some in the main opposition Minjoo, or Democratic, party believe it was Park’s intention to create a split within the pro-impeachment camp. The country then has to hold a presidential election within 60 days.

Large conglomerates had allegedly been pressured by Choi into donating tens of millions of USA dollars to two nonprofit foundations Choi actually controls.

Other charges facing Park include that she leaked classified presidential documents to Choi.

On Wednesday, she picked a special prosecutor among the two candidates recommended by opposition parties.

South Korean President, Park Geun-hye said that she will follow the National Assembly’s decision about her course of resignation as the President, including cutting short her remaining term.

The President said she will actively cooperate in the investigation, vowing to accept the questioning by the independent counsel to explain in detail about the truth behind the scandal. We strongly hope all political parties of South Korea will form an interim suprapartisan Cabinet and proceed with preparations for a presidential election that will determine the post-Park administration.

According to protest organisers, around two million people took to the streets for the fifth consecutive day on Wednesday to demand the resignation of Park, whose popularity ratings have dropped to a record low of four per cent. After all, they say, if Park really cared about what most South Koreans say they want, she would have simply resigned.

Park’s speech came as opposition parties were closing in on an impeachment motion. “That’s new because we were hearing that she was in the bunker in the Blue House and was ready to fight this out”.

Although unlikely, legislative squabbling could even allow Park to limp across the finish line of her single, five-year term in early 2018. But they also said they’d meet again if that plan does not work, meaning they’re bracing for the possibility that a Friday vote might not take place. Her lawyer, Yoo Yeong-ha, has described prosecutors’ accusations as groundless. President Park needs to appoint one of them as the special investigator by the 2nd of December.