Bill introduced to impeach Park
SOUTH Korea’s parliament introduced a bill yesterday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, setting the stage for a historic vote to oust the leader engulfed in an influencescandal.
Parliament is expected to vote today in favour of impeachment, although the Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the motion, a process that could take up to 180 days.
Opposition parties believe they will get the twothirds majority needed, with support from about 30 members of Park’s Saenuri Party to secure the necessary 200 votes.
Park, 64, said this week she would await the court’s ruling, signalling that the country’s six-week political crisis is set to go on. She is under intense pressure to resign, with big crowds taking to the streets every Saturday. Her approval rating is at a record low of 4%. A poll released yesterday said 78.2% of respondents wanted Park to be impeached.
She would be the first democratically elected president of South Korea not to serve a full five-year term.
Former president Roh Moo-hyun was impeached by parliament in 2004 but it was overturned by the Constitutional Court, which said the grounds for impeachment were insufficient.
Park is accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide to pressure big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives. She has denied wrongdoing.
An impeachment vote must be held within 72 hours of the motion’s introduction. The leaders of the two main opposition parties have said their 159 members would all resign if the motion failed, taking responsibility for their inability to follow through on the demands of the public.
That would then mean byelections to fill their seats.
In April, Park’s Saenuri Party unexpectedly lost its parliamentary majority during elections.
On Tuesday, leaders of the country’s largest conglomerates, including Samsung Group scion Jay Y Lee, were grilled during a 13hour hearing in which they denied that donations to two charitable foundations supported by Park and at the centre of the scandal were made in exchange for favourable treatment.
On Wednesday, former associates of Choi testified to the same parliamentary panel that Choi conducted herself in ways that made it clear she was close to Park and influential.
The finance ministry said it was concerned about risks to the economy from “domestic issues” which could dent consumption and investment at a time of global uncertainty.
Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, led South Korea for 18 years after seizing power in a 1961 military coup. He was murdered by a disgruntled spy chief in 1979. — Reuters