Opposition trapped over impeachment
People’s Party proposes vote on motion Monday
President Park Geun-hye’s political gambit to let the National Assembly decide on her presidency has apparently succeeded in distracting the National Assembly from the move to impeach her.
The opposition bloc failed to submit a joint impeachment motion against Park, Thursday, after the second-largest opposition People’s Party raised an objection to the timing.
They initially planned to submit the motion for a parliamentary vote Friday in cooperation with a group of anti-Park lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party.
However, the People’s Party called for a delay in the vote, citing changing sentiment toward the impeachment among the members of the Saenuri Party.
It instead proposed voting on the motion Dec. 5. Interim leader Park Jie-won said his party decided the date as its official position, expressing hopes that the remaining opposition parties will get on board.
Leaders of the three opposition parties met earlier in the day to narrow their differences on when to forward it, but to no avail.
Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairwoman Rep. Choo Mi-ae, along with Chairwoman Rep. Sim Sang-jeung of the minor opposition Justice Party, pushed hard to submit the motion Thursday, propelled by public sentiment and confidence in the ruling party’s inevitable participation in the vote.
But Park insisted on delaying it to either Dec. 5 or 9, expressing concerns that the motion could be voted down with no promise of support from the ruling party lawmakers.
“The Saenuri Party lawmakers have no intention to back the impeachment even if we arrange the vote for Dec. 9,” Choo said during the meeting. “If we delay the vote, it is inevitable that we will lose momentum in pushing for impeachment.”
Rep. Sim agreed, saying, “It is the people’s order to do it on Friday. The delay won’t change anything. If the ruling party votes against the motion, they will do the same next week.”
Rep. Park, however, objected, saying the opposition bloc needs to persuade anti-Park lawmakers to join them first. “Not submission, but passage of the motion should be the aim of the impeachment process,” he said.
The submission of an impeachment motion is only possible when a majority of 300 Assemblymen support it. The remaining opposition parties cannot meet the required number of 151 without the 38 People’s Party lawmakers.
Their clash came after the ruling Saenuri Party made it an official position that it will have the President step down by the end of April and push for an early presidential election in June, prioritizing the shortening of the presidential term to impeachment.
Anti-Park lawmakers in the Saenuri Party agreed to the plan for the President’s orderly handover of power, which has been supported by her loyalists, showing signs of breaking away from their earlier impeachment efforts.
Their changing stance was already detected during Choo’s meeting with former Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung, a de-facto leader of the anti-Park lawmakers, earlier in the day.
During the meeting, Kim clashed with Choo, asking her to end the push for the impeachment if Park decides to leave by the end of April. Choo declined, saying the President should be ousted by January at the latest.
President Park Geun-hye visited the fire-ravaged traditional market in her hometown of Daegu, Thursday, in her first outside activity in over a month, following the eruption of the massive influence-peddling scandal.
Park paid a visit to a building in section four of Seomun Market, which caught fire early Wednesday and burned for over eight hours, injuring two firefighters and gutting the entire building housing 840 shops.
The visit was low-profile — the President was not accompanied by a crowd of reporters and only a minimal entourage — considering public opinion, which has hit record lows.
According to Yonhap News Agency, her visit was no more than 15 minutes.
She spoke with victims at the site, who thanked her for the visit. Park didn’t drop by the situation room where local authorities were working to contain the situation. Supporters cheered for Park, but some expressed their disapproval.
Daegu is the President’s city of birth and also the traditional home turf of Korea’s conservatives.
Park’s visit to the southeastern city is seen as a move to consoli- date support amid ongoing discussions on her resignation. Her approval rating dropped to a record-low of 4 percent in the last week of November, due to the public’s discontent with her response to the scandal.
The President’s third public address on the matter involving her confidant, Choi Soon-sil, Tuesday only angered the public further.
Park implied she had not committed any wrongdoing and would not voluntarily step down, despite having been named by the prosecution as an accomplice and “criminal suspect” in extorting funds for Choi from conglomerates and letting her see classified state documents. The President said she would leave it up to the National Assembly to make a decision on her resignation. The people have vowed to take to the streets for a sixth consecutive weekly rally Saturday.
Park is known to have visited her hometown in situations of crisis, such as when she was lagging in polls ahead of the presidential election in 2012.
There are suspicions that the fire was intentionally lit by a citizen angered by the current state of affairs. Police are investigating the cause, based on surveillance footage and testimonies, saying it could take up to two weeks.