South Korean Politics: A Korean Drama Come to Life
While North America and albeit, most of the world was captivated by the rise of the tyranny that is Donald Trump, not much is being reported on the state of the South Korean government which, in my opinion, has been much more unstable long before President Trump had been sworn in as president. Back in early December South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was impeached by the South Korean legislature after weeks of protests by the public and countless judicial hearings looked into corruption charges. Although to most people this may sounds like any other stereotypical politician, there are so many layers to President Park’s story that distinguish it from every other disgraced politician story and it starts with the President’s Father, Park Chung-hee, who was President of South Korea from 1963–1971 after a successful military coup. Even so, we will just be scratching the surface of what is the Park dynasty in South Korean politics.
Late President Park Chung-hee befriended the leader of the Eternal Church of Life leader Choi Tae-min. Shortly after the assassinations of current President Park’s mother, Choi Tae-min comforted President Park by using his spiritual abilities as Leader of the Eternal Church of Life to offer her chances to speak with her dead mother. To current President Park, this was a huge offer as she had a very close relationship with her mother. It was through these actions which President Park would go on to gain confidence in trusting the Choi’s. Upon Choi Tae-min’s retirement as Leader, he “transferred” his spiritual powers to his daughter, Choi Soon-sil, leading to the eventual friendship between Choi Soon-sil and President Park. Unfortunately, President Park misjudged the level of trust she invested in Choi Soon-sil, leading to her eventual downfall as President.
Chief among the number of complaints against President Park was her presidential power to pressure CEOs of major Korean chaebols (family ran corporations) to donate money to Choi Soon-sil’s charities. Whether or not this money actually went into a legitimate charity, it’s alleged that at least $60 million USD was extorted from South Korean companies. Allegations are also made that Park’s government allowed mergers of corporations during her presidency as long as they donated to Choi’s charity. At the same time, it is also alleged that President Park allowed Choi Soon-Sil, who isn’t a government official, have access to classified documents and learned about top secret government plans directly from the President. These lapses in judgement not only ruined President Park’s reputation, it also ended up throwing several high ranking officials and individuals into jail, including the head of the National Pension Fund Moon Hyung-pyo, and Vice Chairman and Acting CEO of Samsung Lee Jae-yong, for corruption charges and supporting requests from Choi Soon-Sil.
Although these allegations are very serious and are proper grounds for impeachment, I believe the start of President Park’s downfall truly came shortly after the Sewol ferry accident of 2014. During the sinking of the ferry, it is alleged that the government response was delayed by 90 minutes as President Park was pre-occupied by her hair. No, that’s not a mistype. President Park wasted 90 minutes in response time by getting her hair done.
For many citizens and Members of Parliaments of both the opposition and the ruling Saenuri party led by President Park though, the Choi Soon-sil scandal was the straw that broke the camel’s back. This, on top of the Sewol incident and an economy that has been more or less floundering since the mid-2000s led to her eventual impeachment on the official grounds of “extensive and serious violation of the constitution and the law”. During the investigations of various actors in the Choi Soon-sil scandal, protests began forming every weekend, rallying for President Park to step down. At peak, it’s estimated that over 1 million citizens joined together to peacefully protest against President Park. Frankly, it’s probably the largest peaceful political protest I’ve seen in modern times. This time around however, the calls from the protesters were heard and President Park was impeached and her powers as President have been revoked. The motion of impeachment is now being reviewed by the Constitutional Court of Korea and their nine judges. They have 180 days from receiving the motion to vote to approve or reject it. If approved, President Park’s impeachment will be confirmed and citizens will choose a new President through an election that will take place within 60 days of the approval announcement. If the motion is rejected President Park will resume her duties as President. I expect there will be more protesting, albeit not as peaceful as before the impeachment.
Thankfully things don’t look too bad for South Koreans if the impeachment is upheld. The next batch of presidential candidates are starting up campaigns already to gain voters. One notable candidate is Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations, a candidate well versed in politics and foreign relations. Well, he was a candidate. Ban Ki-moon dropped out of the race three weeks ago upon allegations surfacing that he and his brother are being investigated for corruption charges of all things. At the time of his announcement of dropping out of the race, he only had 13 % approval rating from potential South Korean voters. The candidate currently in the lead with a near 35% approval rating is Moon Jae-in, a man considered to be a progressive candidate. To his credit, he has worked previously as Chief of Staff for former President Roh Moo-hyun, a human rights lawyer by profession and in my opinion probably the nicest man ever in the world of politics. Former President Roh is considered to be the best president South Korea has ever democratically voted for. So in all, there is a lot riding for Moon Jae-in and he would definitely be a change relative to current President Park.
Right now, the fate of the government of South Korea lies in the hands of the Constitutional Court of Korea, currently through just over 50 days into their 180 day time frame to consider and deliver their verdict. In the meanwhile, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has assumed the roles of the president and, along with the rest of nation, would with no doubt like to see a quick response from the constitutional court.
Sources:
http://time.com/4583033/south-korea-protest-demonstration-seoul-park-geun-hye-choi-soon-sil/
