SHE had refused to be questioned, and attended none of the 20 hearings since a trial on her impeachment began on January 3rd. She had blocked investigators from entering the Blue House, the presidential residence, and a fortnight ago she demanded the ejection of one of the justices hearing her case. It was all for nothing. On March 10th Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s first female president as well as its first to have an impeachment upheld by a court, was permanently removed from office. It cut short her five-year term by 11 months.
All eight justices currently serving on the country’s constitutional court voted to uphold a parliamentary motion, on December 9th, to impeach her. That motion followed weeks of huge but peaceful crowds gathering in downtown Seoul, the capital, to call for her resignation. MPs had listed 13 constitutional violations, including dereliction of duty, abuse of power and infringing the freedom of the press. The court said it could not find conclusive evidence for most of these charges. But it was able to rule that Ms Park had divulged state secrets to Choi Soon-sil, an allegedly corrupt confidante (whose personal wealth, a...Continue reading
from Asia http://ift.tt/2msya23
EmoticonEmoticon