
South Korean President Impeached - howon92
http://khnews.kheraldm.com/view.php?ud=20170310000352&md=20170310112254_BL
======
bane
This is huge. Early analysis is that this is a net positive for Korean
democracy since the entire process, from protests to ouster was relatively
peaceful and the people involved in the ouster tried to follow the rule of law
as much as possible. It's exercised for the first time a part of the legal
system that's never been explored in the country.

At each stage of the very complex process, the government figured out what to
do without too much fuss, even operating as a temporary parliamentary
democracy.

It wasn't too long ago that this could have gone very differently: seizure of
power, military occupation, coups, violence and corruption.

This is Korea's Nixon moment.

 _edit_ There's some very serious discussion regarding criminal charges they
may now be brought now that she's freed from Presidential immunity.

 _edit2_ For folks who want more background on what this is all about, "Ask a
Korean" has done a magnificent job of writing the charges up.

[http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-ultimate-choi-
soo...](http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-ultimate-choi-soon-sil-
gate.html)

[http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-ultimate-choi-
soo...](http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-ultimate-choi-soon-sil-
gate.html)

~~~
nether
My cousin is a historian of Korea, and well, Korean herself. She says this
president is like Korea's GWB. Shamelessly very right wing, a lot of gaffes
related to speech and behavior. There are going to be a lot of happy people
tonight.

~~~
simpx
sorry, but what's GWB stands for?

~~~
adrianmonk
George W. Bush

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poofyleek
This is indeed huge. I left Korea right after Park Jung-hee was assassinated
by one of his officers. Predictably, this was followed by a military coup and
martial law. Park Jung-hee himself seized the reign by means of his own
military coup against the previous president. His daughter, Park guen-hye, is
now outed by the Supreme court, peacefully. In the old south Korea I remember,
the same court had ruled in favor of the military regime to condemn Kim dae-
jung to death sentence. Kim dae-jung later was elected president after the
democratization of south Korea. I remember the heavily armed soldiers
everywhere as I was leaving the country, after the assassination. That is my
last memory of Korea. I have not been back since 1979. Perhaps now it is time
for me to go back and visit. Congratulations to the Korean people.

~~~
bane
You should definitely go back. I've been visiting Korea for 16 years, it's an
amazing, dynamic country that seems to literally transform itself every few
years. Even with only a couple years in between trips, I can hardly recognize
it.

It's not perfect, but no place is, but I have a strong sense that it's
changing for the better.

~~~
magic_beans
Really? All my girl friends who've been to Korea (even the Korean ones) can't
stand it at all. I wonder if it's different for white American men vs minority
(incl. Korean) American women.

~~~
bane
Yeah, absolutely. It's a fun, lively, very modern country with an astonishing
amount to do, experience and see. Lots of friendly people who are eager to
share their country and culture.

There's some social pressures and responsibilities for people who live there
that can make it difficult if you can't get into the groove of the place, lots
of Koreans will complain about them in various ways -- but they are what they
are.

Admittedly, white foreigners (men and women) get treated fairly well. I've
only ever had a couple of incidents where I didn't feel welcome as a
foreigner. Non-white foreigners have various observations on their own
treatment.

Here's some examples:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRdhJEl5FTc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRdhJEl5FTc)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTPpgjdl4s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTPpgjdl4s)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGxrW_PB8gI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGxrW_PB8gI)

Same question to white people

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9PscUvu_Dk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9PscUvu_Dk)

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jdoliner
This is obviously a bit pedantic but technically she was already impeached.
This article is about her being convicted in the impeachment trial. The post
title also doesn't match with the article title which more correctly states
that she's been ousted.

~~~
pcurve
Technically, she wasn't impeached.

But the way impeachment process works in SK, once the process begins, you are
no longer able to function as president.

So 'effectively', she was already impeached.

Obviously I'm the one being pedantic. lol.

~~~
dllthomas
Impeachment is the bringing of charges.

~~~
true_religion
As a legal processes, the definition and order or procedures vary wildly
between different countries.

Some countries for example charge you with a crime, but don't actually arrest
you until they're bringing it to trial. Some countries don't have a
prosecution, or a defence but a system where multiple government officials
advocate for the truth.

You can set up a legal system anyway you want, and define the terms however
you like---it'll be legal and valid in your country.

~~~
dllthomas
It's certainly the case that procedures, their order, and attendant
consequences of any given step will vary. Those have no bearing at all on what
was said - it would still be the case that impeachment was the bringing of
charges, and would not depend upon conviction and removal from office.

It is also possible that Korea may have explicitly defined this particular
English word differently than the rest of the world. If that's the case, it
seems worth calling out explicitly.

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sideproject
As a Korean, I feel bittersweet for my mother country. It's embarrassing that
this is happening, yet I feel relieved now that people of Korea can move
forward - here's hoping for electing a more qualified president next.

~~~
nercht12
Don't feel embarrassed. It's better that a country can actually fix its
problems peacefully rather than outright denying it has a problem and trying
to go on with business as usual. Peaceful resolution - for the better - is
something to be proud of in a democracy.

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h4nkoslo
The South Korean presidential scandal is one of the odder bits of contemporary
political history. Imagine an alternate-history US President Hillary Clinton
being impeached over PizzaGate and it starts to get close. Besides the actual
corruption mentioned in the article, there are credible reports swirling of a
"8 Goddesses" cabal and various occult practices.

[http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-irrational-
downfa...](http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-irrational-downfall-of-
park-geun-hye.html)

[http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2016/10/29/499864915/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2016/10/29/499864915/swirling-scandal-involving-shamanistic-cult-
threatens-s-korean-president)

[http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/76...](http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/767405.html)

[https://medium.com/@thepenningtonlens/the-south-korean-
puppe...](https://medium.com/@thepenningtonlens/the-south-korean-puppet-
president-77354276c186#.1lp10dmg9)

~~~
nether
The 4chan summary is the best I've read:
[http://i.imgur.com/86Z3ea6l.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/86Z3ea6l.jpg)

~~~
magic_beans
How much of that... is accurate?

~~~
yongjik
The "Eight heavenly ladies" part didn't pan out. So far, it seems there was
only Choi Soonsil; I dunno, there might be seven stupid ladies who believed
they were important just because they were Choi's friends.

Yeah, but others are more or less factual. And that doesn't even begin to
address the more odd bits, like Choi's friend Ko Young-Tae, who is a former
Asian Game medalist who became a gigolo, made friends with Choi, and then
reportedly had a fallout with Choi over a puppy owned by Choi's daughter...

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xufi
What happeend to her freind and the other Samsung CEO who was arrested ?

~~~
pcurve
Prosecution is under way, and they are going to have to serve some jail time.
There is no way around it at this point.

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vermontdevil
At least her ending is not the same as her father.

~~~
curuinor
Don't say that until she dies, KCIA could still assassinate her

~~~
yongjik
KCIA is currently run by clowns who roll in the same bed as Park's people, so
probably not. (One of the first thing the next president needs to do is to
purge it of all the criminals who've meddled with domestic politics.)

...Unless someone has the craziest idea of killing her so that she could be a
martyr. But I doubt they have someone who is that evil and that competent at
the same time.

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gotofritz
This is somehow connected to geopolitics in the area and the THAAD project,
since the US government is worried the next administration may not be so in
favour of it (left leaning parties tend towards disarmament, as crazy as that
sound with an insane neighbour north of the border)

~~~
clydethefrog
>as crazy as that sound with an insane neighbour north of the border

Not every country sees international relations as a form of game theory, with
mutual assured destruction as an important component. Korean reunification can
be a preferable option instead of threatening the people that used to be part
of your community, but had the bad luck to be at the wrong side of the
ideological fight between the US and the USSR.

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chompomonim
Let's hope Russia is next and USA is following ;)

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jdoliner
> The nation now must hold a presidential election within 60 days, making it
> likely to fall on May 9.

This is different from how it works in USG where Congress elects a new
President themselves from within Congress. At least that's what my
understanding is from googling around, no President has been convicted in an
impeachment trial.

Edit: As later comments have pointed out I'm wrong here, instead the normal
line of succession applies.

~~~
rjeli
What is USG?

~~~
pearle
United States Government

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nojvek
This is indeed very huge. Does anyone see this happening with trump?

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beedogs
Hopefully a certain other President is next.

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warcher
What's the minimum bar for convicting a sitting president again?

...asking for a friend.

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gingerbread-man
Well done S.Korea. Any tips for US?

~~~
Numberwang
Educate your electorate.

~~~
zw123456
Major flaw with democracy, 50% of electorate has below average IQ.

~~~
winstonewert
Actually, 50% of electorate has below _median_ IQ.

~~~
Judgmentality
Specifically for the IQ, isn't the average designed to be the median? It's a
normal distribution after all.

~~~
acchow
Can't actually have a normal distribution that has a bound on one end...

~~~
Judgmentality
There's no reason an IQ couldn't be negative. Granted, I don't think the IQ
test is properly calibrated for this and I don't think real world data
_perfectly_ fits the bell curve as designed, so it's kind of moot point.

