South Koreans take to streets to demand ousted president’s arrest
Police call in thousands of officers to calm protesters marching in capital after leader’s impeachment
TENS of thousands of police officers lined the streets of Seoul yesterday to separate a rally in support of the ousted president, Park Geun-hye, from a larger rival group demanding her arrest.
Carrying flags and candles and cheering jubilantly, tens of thousands of people occupied a boulevard in downtown Seoul to celebrate Ms Park’s removal. Fireworks were let off in jubilation, after what many in South Korea saw as democracy at work.
Meanwhile, in a nearby grass square, a large crowd of Ms Park’s supporters glumly waved national flags near a stage where organisers, wearing red caps and military uniforms, vowed to resist what they called a “political assassination”.
Police were braced for violence between the crowds after three people died and dozens were injured in clashes between police and Ms Park’s supporters following a constitutional court’s decision on Friday to uphold her impeachment.
Nearly 20,000 police officers were deployed yesterday to monitor the protesters, who were also separated by tight perimeters created by hundreds of police buses.
Ms Park was thrown out of office over a corruption scandal involving the country’s conglomerates.
The 65-year-old is South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office, after months of political turmoil over a scandal that also landed the head of the Samsung conglomerate in jail and facing trial.
The court ruling marked a dramatic fall from grace of South Korea’s first woman president and daughter of Park Chung-hee, the Cold War military dictator. She served as his first lady after the 1974 assassination of her mother. Her father was then gunned down by his security chief in 1979.
Her removal from office has sharply divided the country. Having lost presidential immunity, she could face charges of bribery, extortion and abuse of power in connection with allegations of conspiring with her friend, Choi Soon-sil. Both women denied wrongdoing.
“Impeachment is not the end. We’ve not dispersed, we’re still going forward,” said one anti-Park protester, who gave his name as TH Kim. “She’s a citizen now. If she’s done something wrong, she has to be arrested.”
Ms Park did not appear in court on Friday and did not comment after the ruling. She spent the night in the presidential Blue House, and is to return to her Seoul residence, a spokesman said.
Choi In-sook, a spokeswoman for protesters opposed to Ms Park, told Reuters they were also demanding the resignation of the acting president, Park loyalist Hwang Kyo-ahn.
‘This is not the end. She’s a citizen now. If she’s done something wrong, she has to be arrested’