South Korean ruling party urges Park to quit in April
SEOUL: South Korea’s ruling party yesterday urged scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye to step down in April next year, giving her a week to accept their ultimatum or risk impeachment.
Park this week said she would be willing to step down early after coming under huge pressure to quit over an influence peddling scandal that has drawn more than a million people onto the streets in protest.
The ruling Saenuri Party’s 128 lawmakers unanimously agreed to demand Park resign in late April and called for a presidential election to be held in June, six months earlier than scheduled.
“All the lawmakers of the party unanimously approved this timetable”, parliamentary floor leader Chung Jin-Suk was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency after a crucial party meeting.
The party considered the timetable the most appropriate to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, maintain stability and give political parties time to prepare for the presidential election, Chung said.
Park said Tuesday she would let parliament decide her fate following accusations that she colluded with Choi Soon-Sil — a secretive confidante dubbed ‘Korea’s Rasputin’ — to coerce firms to ‘donate’ tens of millions of dollars to foundations which were used for Choi’s personal gain.
Park has been named as a suspect in the investigation, making her the first sitting president to be subject to a criminal probe while in office.
And although Park’s announcement reduced the momentum of calls for her impeachment, the main opposition Democratic Party insisted that Park should be stripped of office by the end of January.
“All South Koreans want Park to leave as soon as possible... they don’t want her to stick around so long,” its leader Choo Mi-Ae said.
Lawmakers from Park’s own party had backed the oppositionled move to impeach her as early as today.
But one of them, former Saenuri Party head Kim Moo-Sung, said they were now willing to give Park four months to leave office.
“If the president agrees to step down on April 30, there is no need to push through with impeachment”, Kim said.
The party would give Park until Thursday next week to accept their demand.
“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.
While she retains the presidency, Park cannot be charged with a criminal offence except insurrection or treason, but she could be charged once she steps down.
Massive weekly protests have been intensifying over the past month, with up to 1.5 million people braving freezing temperatures in Seoul tomorrow to demand Park’s resignation, according to organisers.
Activists called for a sixth weekly protest tomorrow in central Seoul, despite Park saying she would be willing to cede power.
Park on Wednesday approved a lawyer recommended by the opposition-controlled parliament as an independent prosecutor to carry out a new probe into the scandal.
The special prosecutor will interview Park and be given 120 days to follow up on the findings of state investigators.
She has backtracked on earlier promises to make herself available for questioning in a judicial probe. — AFP
All the lawmakers of the party unanimously approved this timetable.
TOKYO: Japan has mobilised its military to help with a second mass cull of 230,000 chickens amid a spreading outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, officials said.
The highly virulent H5 strain was found in chickens at a farm in Joetsu city in Niigata prefecture, the local government said in a statement late Wednesday.
It said that 2,100 people, including 1,020 members of the military, were being mobilised in the effort to kill the chickens and contain the virus.
The chicken slaughter began late Wednesday and was expected to continue until Sunday, the statement said.
Authorities have also banned the transport of poultry and poultry products in areas close to the affected farm, while sterilising main roads leading to them.
The case comes after a cull of nearly 320,000 chickens began at another farm in Niigata and some 16,500 ducks were also to be culled at a farm in the northern prefecture of Aomori.
Farm minister Yuji Yamamoto urged Niigata prefecture to ‘enhance measures’ to prevent the virus from spreading, according to Jiji Press.
Before the current outbreak, Japan’s last confirmed case of avian flu at a farm was in January 2015. — AFP
Chung Jin-Suk, parliamentary floor leader