S.Korea’s Park impeached by parliament
Prime minister assumes president’s duties in the interim
South Korean parliament on Friday successfully impeached President Park Geun-hye over an influencepeddling scandal, making her the country’s first elected leader to be pushed from office in disgrace.
Lu Kang, a spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, told a daily briefing on Friday that the impeachment is South Korea’s internal policy. And China never intervenes in other countries’ domestic affairs but hopes that the situation in South Korea will stabilize as soon as possible.
Chinese experts said that the political uncertainty that has ripped the country may last till the new presiden- tial election, and it has complicated the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the impeachment motion was passed with the approval of 234 lawmakers in the 300-seat National Assembly, meeting the minimum requirement of 200. Among the 299 lawmakers joining the anonymous vote, 56 voted against the impeachment and two abstained. Seven votes were considered invalid.
Park’s duties were immediately assumed by Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn on an interim basis.
“This is an overwhelming impeachment vote, and Park’s only hope to over-
turn the result lies in the Constitutional Court, which is responsible to review the legitimacy of the motion within 180 days,” Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, told the Global Times on Friday.
Zheng said that the Constitutional Court once took 63 days to dismiss the impeachment motion against former president Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 but the situation is different for Park as mass rallies have been held in Seoul in the past few weeks to press her to quit.
Han Xiandong, an international relations professor with the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Friday that despite some uncertain factors, it is likely that the Constitutional Court will consider the impeachment valid if the ruling was made from the perspective of protecting the national interests.
The impeachment was proposed by South Korea’s three opposition parties, claiming Park violated the constitution and other rules in relation to the influence-peddling scandal of her confidante Choi Soon-sil. Choi is suspected of exerting influence on state affairs, and enjoyed unlawful benefits.
“South Korea may enter a period of political uncertainty until the next presidential election as the current premier is also under fire from the opposition parties,” Lü Chao, a research fellow at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.
The next presidential election was originally slated for December 2017. If the court rules against Park, the country will have to reschedule the race to an earlier date, Yonhap News reported.
“The politics of South Korea has been deeply influenced by the conglomerates and there is no political leader who can end the chaos. Some South Korean media expect Ban Ki-moon to alleviate the problem but his capability to do so remains unknown,” Lü said.
Although Ban the former UN Secretary-General, has not declared his candidacy, he was until a month ago the front-runner in opinion polls to win the election, a race he was widely expected to contest from Park’s conservative Saenuri Party, Reuters reported.
Raising tensions
China highly appreciates the actions that President Park Geun-hye has taken for the partnership between China and South Korea but firmly opposed the decision on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system under her administration, which has undermined China’s security interests in the region, foreign ministry spokesman Lu said.
“Right now South Korea is going through some domestic political reshuffle. After the reshuffle, South Korea will reflect on Park’s policies, including her foreign and security policies. From this point, [the impeachment] might be conducive to the improvement of Sino-South Korean relations,” Han said.
Park has done little to relax the tension with North Korea, given the decision to close the Kaesong Industrial Park in February, and she has brought South Korea to a dangerous situation by agreeing with the deployment of THAAD, Lü said.