Impeachment and talks

Opposition must respond to Saenuri’s overture

The opposition’s plan to impeach President Park Geun-hye on Friday appears off the table as the minor opposition People’s Party rejected a request to vote on the impeachment.

“Our goal is to impeach Park rather than offer the impeachment motion itself, although the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) plans to propose the motion Friday,” a People’s Party spokesman said. The splinter party’s decision makes sense, considering that the motion is unlikely to be passed because anti-Park lawmakers from the governing Saenuri Party want to continue discussions on Park’s “orderly departure.”

The three opposition parties and liberal independents occupy only 172 seats, falling short of the 200 votes, or two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly, needed to pass the impeachment motion. This means that the opposition must recruit at least 28 votes from the ruling party.

But Saenuri Party lawmakers who supported the impeachment backed down after Park offered to resign before her term ends according to a schedule and legal procedures agreed on in the Assembly. In this respect, the DPK’s blind pursuit of impeachment is obviously unrealistic.

The largest opposition party and its leader Choo Mi-ae have been urging the scandal-ridden President to step down immediately and unconditionally. But this demand is also unrealistic, given that the next presidential election must be held within 60 days after Park’s resigna- tion — too pressing a schedule for all parties to prepare.

Impeaching President Park is surely a hot potato.

If the Assembly votes down the impeachment motion, the candlelit protests could spread further and might turn violent, with accusations directed at the legislature. The looming political chaos might deal a fatal blow to the already-moribund economy and national security as Park will have no reason to step down legally.

Even in the event of the impeachment motion passing the Assembly, confusion will continue until the Constitutional Court decides on the motion amid the acute split in public opinion.

Impeachment is a legal means but does more harm than good. True, Park’s intention to resign seems dubious, but the point is that she announced her willingness to step down. That’s what the opposition parties eagerly wanted until recently.

One cannot help but call into question why the opposition — especially the DPK — even refuses to talk with the Saenuri Party over Park’s orderly departure. It is encouraging in this regard that the ruling party unanimously decided to have Park step down before April 30 and hold the next presidential election in June in its gathering of lawmakers, Thursday.

The opposition should respond to the governing party’s overture to end political uncertainty as soon as possible. Of course, the impeachment procedure needs to go on while the parties are engaged in negotiations to determine Park’s fate.