South Korea’s President Ousted

The Liberty Korea Party, which lost its ruling party status with Park’s removal, is split between two factions: One rejecting the court’s judgment and the other accepting it.

Disgraced South Korean leader Park Geun-hye has left the presidential Blue House, two days after a court dismissed her over a corruption scandal, bound for her private home and facing the possibility of prosecution and jail. Polls of South Koreans before Park’s impeachment found that 70 percent of Koreans wanted Park out.

The main street through downtown Seoul was barricaded after the court’s ruling, broadcast live nationwide.

Ms Park’s supporters and opponents had gathered outside the court to watch the court decision on big screens, with her fans erupting in violence at the news.

Park’s days of silence led to criticism.

Pyongyang’s framing of her downfall as a result of her “anti-DPRK” policies showed that state media couldn’t risk explaining the more conventional understanding of democracy to its people, Cha said. Chinese authorities, Reuters reported, have closed almost two dozen of its stores. But she also struck a defiant tone. Also, prosecutors could make another attempt to raid the presidential office, after they failed to do so before impeachment, in order to obtain copies of various documents stored at the top office. Both women have denied wrongdoing. Three people died in protests following the impeachment this weekend. Artist An Hyun-jung, 30, who has been staging performances criticizing Park on Gwanghwamun Square said there was still much to do.

If Hwang enters the presidential race, the role of government caretaker will go to Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Il-ho until the elections.

South Korea’s temporary government was expected this week to confirm the date May 9 for a new presidential election following the impeachment of President Park Guen-hye.

The statement said the United States will continue to be a “steadfast ally, friend and partner” to South Korea, “especially with respect to defending against the threat from North Korea”.

At another remove, governance in South Korea has been shaken to its foundations with Friday’s dramatic development that renders Park Geun-hye, the first democratically-elected President of South Korea, to be forced out of office.

Park had been part of the nation’s political community since she was a child.

The county’s Constitutional Court ruled on Friday to uphold a parliamentary vote to impeach Park. Park allegedly worked with her to extort millions from businesses; a more sensational version has the now-former president essentially under the control of that friend, who is the daughter of a cult leader.

In response to the deployment plan and an ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills, the DPRK reportedly test-fired four ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast, the second of its kind in less than a month if confirmed. The killer was aiming for the president. Some supporters have nicknamed him the “Obama of South Korea”. This year, President Trump has been added to the mix, goading Chinese and North Korean leaders on Twitter, while holding hands with Shinzo Abe, the right-wing nationalist leader of Japan.

Park was stripped of her powers after parliament voted to impeach her but has remained in the president’s official compound, the Blue House. “It will take time, but I believe that truth will certainly come out”. Can she survive this time? Her behavior at this point will be etched in the public’s memory of her. Park herself will likely face charges, possibly as early as this week.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

We want to hear from you. Padded and Kim reported from Seoul. George Grow was the editor.