Thursday, December 01, 2016

the ROK Constitution

Ever been interested in looking over South Korea's Constitution?

Here it is in Korean, and here it is in English (PDF).

I suddenly got curious when I thought about the current presidential scandal and pondered what might happen should President Park Geun-hye step down next year. If PGH steps down, there will be a snap election to choose a president who will serve out the remainder of Park's term, which ends in February of 2018, thus giving the president pro tempore a bit more than a year to go, if we start the clock from right now. But here's the question: if a certain X is elected, will that X then be able to run for president in 2018?* I know the ROK Constitution forbids a president from serving more than one five-year term, but what about this special situation? Could X, in theory, serve this one year, then serve another five years if reelected? Is that constitutionally possible? Hence my sudden interest in the ROK Constitution.

Pore through the document(s) and tell me what you think.



*By this I mean: "run for president for the term beginning in 2018."



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