On Friday, South Korea's National Assembly overwhelmingly voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, with dozens of members of Park's own conservative Saenuri Party joining the opposition in a lopsided 234-56 vote. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will immediately take over for Park while the Constitutional Court decides if the impeachment is valid, a process expected to take no more than 180 days. If the court sides with parliament, Park will be permanently removed from office and new elections will be held within 60 days.
Park, South Korea's first female leader, was elected in 2012 and scheduled to serve through February 2018. Calls for her resignation or removal have grown since prosecutors indicted a close friend, Choi Soon-sil, and two former presidential aides last month on suspicion of using presidential influence to accrue power and shake down companies to donate to foundations controlled by Choi. At the time, prosecutors say they believe Park was "collusively involved" with the suspects' criminal activities, though Park denies all legal wrongdoing. Her offer to resign two weeks ago was widely seen as a stalling tactic. Park's approval rating on Friday stood at 5 percent, according to Gallup Korea, and 81 percent of Koreans supported her impeachment.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
-
Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba have a rough day in defamation courtSpeed Read Trump's audible grousing as E. Jean Carroll testified earned him a warning he could be thrown out of court, and Habba showed she 'doesn't know what the hell she's doing'
-
Anders Breivik to testify in prison isolation lawsuit against NorwaySpeed Read Far-right fanatic who killed 77 people in 2011 claims he has received 'inhuman treatment' in custody
