What will be the punishment after Park Geun-hye is impeached and steps down?

Park Geun-hye became the first president in South Korea to be impeached and removed from office, and she may inevitably be imprisoned.

On March 9, 2017, local time, in Seoul, South Korea, "pro-Park" people rallied outside the Constitutional Court to oppose the impeachment of the president.

On the morning of March 10, local time, in a live TV broadcast, the Constitutional Court of South Korea made the final decision to "pass impeachment" on Park Geun-hye's impeachment case. According to Yonhap News Agency, the eight judges voted unanimously on the case.

Nearly 20 minutes after Li Zhenmei, acting president of the Constitutional Court, read out the verdict, she officially announced that the impeachment case had been passed. Effective immediately, Park Geun-hye will be removed from the presidency and become the first impeached president in South Korean history. The next presidential election will be held within 60 days.

Legal issues play political cards: Stability is the most important

Park Geun-hye herself did not attend the sentencing that day. As of press time, neither Park Geun-hye nor the ruling Liberty Korea Party has issued any statement. One of her aides previously said that Park Geun-hye has said what she needs to say and will wait calmly for the verdict.

At the end of February this year, after the last trial of Park Geun-hye’s impeachment case, the judges of South Korea’s Constitutional Court started closed-door deliberation and voted on the final result today.

According to South Korean law, approval of an impeachment case requires the consent of at least two-thirds, or six, of the nine judges of the Constitutional Court. This number requirement will not change due to the resignation of individual judges. At the end of January this year, the former president Park Han-chul resigned, and the number of judges was reduced to eight. In other words, 6 of the current 8 judges need to agree to pass the impeachment case.

According to South Korea's "Central Daily News", which previously cited sources within the Constitutional Court, the judges had prepared two completely different judgments in advance because the outcome of the verdict was not expected to be announced until the last minute. In a separate decision, the court dismissed the impeachment case.

"This incident cannot simply be regarded as a legal issue, but also involves many political issues. In a situation where public opinion is almost one-sided and social turmoil is turbulent, it is conducive to the stability of the country to provide an explanation to the people through the impeachment case." Central Party School International Liang Yabin, associate professor at the Institute of Strategic Studies and senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, said that if the impeachment fails, public protests will intensify and society will become more divided. "From the perspective of national interests, sacrificing one person can quickly stabilize the country, which is also a relatively good choice."

Before the impeachment results were announced, the opposition camp had already made a statement on the 9th, asking Park Geun-hye to guarantee that she would accept the ruling of the Constitutional Court. According to Xinhua News Agency, South Korea’s Democratic Party Whip Woo Sang-hoo said, “The last role that Park Geun-hye can play as president is to accept the outcome of any verdict to ensure national unity.” He also said that compared to the verdict itself, The opposition camp is more worried about the situation that may arise after the verdict is announced. The main opposition party, which split from the ruling party, also urged Park Geun-hye to make a guarantee. The main party said Park Geun-hye should declare her willingness to accept any verdict to avoid the worst-case scenario.

Just recently, tens of thousands of "anti-Park" people held a rally in downtown Seoul, shouting, "Constitutional Court, please pass the impeachment case of Park Geun-hye immediately!" At the same time, several streets away, Another group of demonstrators asked the court to dismiss the impeachment case against the president. It is reported that these "upright" people, mostly middle-aged and elderly people, waved placards and urged the dissolution of Congress.

There will be restrictions on presidential power in the future

“After the impeachment is passed, the ‘pro-Park’ faction will hold demonstrations, but their base is small and will not cause too much damage. Interference." Li Kaisheng, a researcher at the Institute of International Studies of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview.

According to South Korean law, Park Geun-hye was immediately removed from the post of president after the impeachment was passed, and South Korea will hold a general election within the next 60 days. "(The passage of impeachment) will give the Communist Party and the Democratic Party a great motivation to prove that the impeachment case they initiated in Congress is correct and supported by the Constitutional Court, and morale will definitely be more boosted." Li Kaisheng said, but for The constitutional reform that has been discussed in South Korea, including the discussion of changing the presidential system to a maximum of two terms of four years each, will raise questions among the people.

In addition, for Park Geun-hye personally, after losing her With the immunity brought by her presidential status, she will face further investigation and interrogation by prosecutors. Public opinion believes that he may not escape jail.

"Park Geun-hye's impeachment and resignation represents the end of an era. Including the evaluation of Park Chung-hee, some important figures in the ruling party may be politically liquidated, such as former President Lee Myung-bak." Jilin University Administration Guo Rui, a professor at the Department of International Politics at the college and a researcher at the North Korea and South Korea Research Center, pointed out to The Paper.

In fact, Park Geun-hye is not the first president in South Korean history to face an impeachment verdict by the Constitutional Court while in office. In March 2004, the opposition party submitted a motion to impeach the president to Congress on the grounds that Roh Moo-hyun was suspected of "exerting unfair influence" on the congressional elections and it was passed. Two months later, the Constitutional Court of South Korea announced the rejection of the impeachment case, saying that "Roh Moo-hyun violated the law, but the seriousness was not enough to warrant his dismissal." Roh Moo-hyun immediately resumed the exercise of presidential power until the end of his term in February 2008. However, Roh Moo-hyun, who escaped the impeachment case, eventually committed suicide by jumping off a cliff on May 23, 2009 due to his involvement in the bribery scandal.

When asked whether Park Geun-hye might follow in the footsteps of Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Kai-sung said: "She herself said, 'Despair has tempered me.' Her personality is different from that of Roh Moo-hyun. It can be seen from her reaction that she chose to fight to the end."