Is it end of the road for scandal-hit Park?
seoul — South Korean President Park Geun-hye faces mounting calls to step down over a political scandal amid indications that parliament, including members from her own ruling party, may try to impeach her.
Three weeks after her first public apology over a political scandal crippling her administration, she faces a narrowing range of options, as she becomes the first sitting leader to be questioned by prosecutors over a criminal case.
“It’s now time to consider impeachment,” Kim Moo-sung, a former leader of the ruling Saenuri Party and once one of Park’s staunchest supporters, said in a statement. She had lost the trust of the people and is no longer capable of continuing as the head of state, he said.
Kim was among a growing number of Saenuri members who have called for her to step down, sensing their leader has become a threat to the party’s political survival.
Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Park’s confidant Choir Soon-sil used her ties with Park to meddle in state affairs. Choi has been arrested and charged with pressuring chaebol conglomerates to donate $68 million to two foundations she controlled and using her position to get her daughter preferential admission to an elite university.
No South Korean leader in its modern democracy has failed to finish a five-year presidential term. In 2004, parliament voted to impeach then-President Roh Moohyun, only to have the motion overturned by the Constitutional Court. The move was unpopular with the public, which saw it as an abuse by the opposition, which had a parliamentary majority.
Political analysts say an impeachment motion against Park could succeed. Impeachment can be initiated with a motion joined by at least half of the members in parliament and needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
“Quite a few of those who are not in the Park faction will likely join in impeaching her, in which case it’s pretty likely it will pass,” independent political commentator Yu Chang-seon said.
Park’s Saenuri Party suffered an unexpected defeat in April’s parliamentary elections and lost its majority. It still holds 129 of the 300 seats in parliament.
The case against Park is strong, said Ha Kyung-chull, a former judge on the Constitutional Court.
“And it is likely the Constitutional Court will uphold the impeachment motion if it goes through parliament,” Ha, who led a team of lawyers who argued for Roh’s reinstatement in 2004, told Reuters.
The main opposition Democratic Party has called for Park’s resignation and said it would move to impeach her if she refuses.