Students respond to South Korean President’s impeachment

The nation’s acting president is calling for unity and calm as the impeached former President Park Geun-hye packs her bags.

Park was elected the nation’s first female president in 2012, largely on the support of older conservative Koreans who revered her father, the nation’s authoritarian president for 18 years. Anti-Park protesters celebrated by marching in the streets near the presidential Blue House, carrying flags, signs and an effigy of Park dressed in prison clothes and tied up with rope.

The big issues for the upcoming election will likely include North Korean provocations, South Korea’s deteriorating relationship with China following the decision to install a USA missile shield on South Korean soil, and South Korea’s alliance with the US under President Donald Trump.

In North Korea, so often the subject of ridicule from media to the south, the scandal has been received with a certain amount of schadenfreude.

In 2004, the National Assembly voted to impeach then President Roh Moo Hyun for alleged breach of political neutrality expected of the president by way of the Constitution, but the Constitutional Court overturned the result, and he resumed his role as president.

“The court’s ruling shows that in any circumstance Korea’s democracy is still solid, including the president’s impeachment”, Lee Won-jae, a prominent economist and political commentator, says in an email from Seoul. “The history moves forward based on the power of the great people”.

Park is the first South Korean president to be removed from office.

“It was thought in one stage that the ruling would mean she would have to leave immediately but that doesn’t seem to be the case”. Among the opposition’s major policy proposals are its calls for more engagement with North Korea and defusing tensions with neighboring China. Samsung, for instance, donated, $36 million ~ more than any other firm ~ to the foundations and allegedly gave millions of euros to Choi to fund her daughter’s equestrian training in Germany.

The court’s acting chief judge, Lee Jung-mi, said Park had violated the constitution and law “throughout her term” and, despite the objections of the legislature and the media, had concealed the truth and cracked down on critics.

As the Park Geun-hye presidency abruptly ends, campaign season begins.

Since she’s now no longer in power, prosecutors can summon, question and possibly arrest her.

Prosecutors have arrested and indicted a slew of high-profile figures over the scandal, including Choi and Samsung’s de facto chief, Lee Jae-yong.