South Korean opposition struggles for clear impeachment plan

DAEGU, South Korea Hours after South Korean President Park Geun-hye offered to step down over a corruption scandal that has left her struggling for political survival, a fire destroyed a sprawling century-old market in her hometown, just blocks from where she was born.

Furthermore, a meeting on Thursday morning between Kim Moo-sung, a former head of Saenuri and rival of Park, and Choo Mi-ae, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, ended without a breakthrough.

Now Park, the first sitting South Korean president to be subject to a criminal probe, is facing the bleak prospect of impeachment and potential imprisonment if she is forced out – a disgrace that was unimaginable only a year ago.

During a hearing at the National Assembly in November 2013, Yoon said he was pressured by superiors to cut short the investigation for political reasons as it involved the president.

The Minjoo Party, the largest opposition party, called it a “ploy to avoid impeachment,” the Associated Press reported, and said that impeachment efforts would go forward.

Rep Chung Jin-suk, the floor leader of Saenuri, said it was a unanimous decision of the party to have Park step down by late April 2017 as the party believed they need ample time to prepare for the presidential election and the orderly handover of power. However, impeaching the president requires a two-thirds majority in the legislature, which means winning more than two dozen votes from Park’s Saenuri party, which supported her suggestion.

The memory of the father, who seized power in an army coup and ruled with an iron fist, dogged Park, with critics accusing her of inheriting her father’s intolerance of dissents. Her term finishes in February 2018.

Her planned speech comes as opposition parties close in on an impeachment motion against her.

The scandal has led to many demonstrations, the most prominent of which being in the capital Seoul.

The opposition parties agreed to put an impeachment motion to a vote as early as this Friday or meet again if this plan doesn’t work, according to Yonhap news agency. Even the senior figures who first suggested the idea of an April resignation at a November 27 lamented that impeachment was “the only method left”. “Otherwise, we would have no other option but to take part in the vote for an impeachment motion Friday next week”, said Kim, who is leading the anti-Park group within the ruling party.

The court would be required to make a ruling within 180 days. A few of the non-Park wing lawmakers who had previously supported Park’s impeachment now oppose it or are withholding judgment after Park’s talk, sources said. If Ms Park is unseated, a new election must be held in 60 days to pick a successor for a full five-year term.

Prosecutors have said President Park conspired with her decades-long friend, Choi Soon-sil, in extorting tens of millions of US dollars from large business conglomerates in return for granting business favors.

Choi Soon-sil and two presidential aides face charges of fraud, coercion and abuse of power over allegations she used her connections to President Park to squeeze money out of businesses.