I asked my boss why people are voting on whether to impeach President Park if she's already being impeached. The boss replied that this is the judicial branch weighing in on impeachment's constitutionality. He noted that President Noh Mu Hyeon went through the same thing, and the courts ended up nixing the impeachment. The same might happen for Park, especially given the general lack of direct evidence against her. She might be guilty of some degree of negligence, but out-and-out malfeasance or corruption is looking difficult to prove. A lot of smoke and mirrors, it seems.
My intuition is that Park has won her gamble: she will remain in the Blue House and serve out her presidential term, which ends early next year, I believe. She might suffer certain legal after-effects once she's out of office, but if the masses are craving justice, whatever that means, they're not going to get the thing they want.
I have to agree with your assessment. I never saw the connection between her poor judgment and outright high crimes.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a lot of people are upset, but really upset at what? How power actually is utilized and conducted throughout society? I don't think PGH's fall will be the catalyst that will radically changes how power does flow in Korea. She, herself alone, isn't the reason for society wide since of unfairness, but she and her mates are the one getting all the trouble.
Well, she was, in fact, impeached, and unanimously at that.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! My streak of wrong predictions continues!
ReplyDeleteAmazing. We live in a new, unsettled—and unsettling—Korea. The demonstrators must be having a collective orgasm.