South Korea enters crucial week with impeachment vote on Park

Backed by overwhelming public support – evident from the millions of South Koreans who have filled the streets in recent weeks demanding her impeachment – the opposition-controlled parliament passed the motion by 234 votes out of 300.

Parliament faces huge pressure to act.

November 20: In indicting Choi and Park’s two former aides, state prosecutors say they believe the president was “collusively involved” in criminal activities by the suspects, who allegedly bullied companies into giving tens of millions of dollars to foundations and businesses Choi controlled, and enabled Choi to interfere with state affairs.

The constitutional court will have as long as 180 days to rule on it, and the two-thirds of the nine-judge court must endorse it to formally impeach the scandal-hit president.

The impeachment motion claims that Park gravely violated laws and the Constitution for almost four years in office.

“Since President Park Geun-hye took office, she has done a lot of work to improve the relationship between China and South Korea, and we highly commended all of her efforts to this end”.

Many people believe Park lost any qualification to run the country the moment she started aiding and abetting Choi as she abused her ties to the president for personal gain.

Park Young-sun, an opposition party lawmaker, grilled Lee on how much tax he paid since he received 6 billion won ($5.1 million) from his father 20 years ago, which snowballed to 8 trillion won ($6.8 billion) through complicated business dealings within Samsung and initial offerings of Samsung companies.

Park has faced awful approval ratings and massive protests since it emerged that her confidante and adviser, Choi Soon-sil, had access to confidential government documents despite holding no official government position.

If parliament votes for impeachment, Park would not be immediately removed.

She graciously said that she would step down if the opposition asks her to. Her duties would be temporarily transferred to the prime minister while the country’s Constitutional Court reviews whether her impeachment could be constitutionally justified.

The constitutional court will now decide whether to uphold the motion and remove the president from office, or reject it and reinstate her.

In a first for a sitting South Korean president, Park has been named a “suspect” by prosecutors investigating Choi.

According to reports, there may be enough Saenuri dissenters who would vote for it. Park said this week that she would accept the vote’s outcome.

Park, the daughter of a former military dictator, Park Chung-hee, has become the least popular president since the country moved toward democracy in the 1980s.

It could take up to six months for the court to examine the case before making its final decision on Park’s faith.