With the cronyism scandal involving President Park Geun-hye’s confidante plunging political circles into a state of turmoil, political parties are trying to figure out what steps they should take to best handle the biggest political crisis of the current administration.
Scrambling to come up with a recovery plan, Saenuri leadership Wednesday decided to join in the opposition-led move to have an independent investigation look into the allegations surrounding Choi Soon-sil. Its leaders earlier in the day proposed to the president a sweeping reshuffle of her secretaries and Cabinet members. Some want to draw a line between the embattled state leader and the party, calling for her to leave Saenuri.
For the liberal opposition, the question is how far they want to push this, with some calling for the impeachment of the president.
“Theoretically, it is possible” to impeach the president, said Rep. Shim Sang-jeung, a leader of the minor opposition Justice Party at a press conference Tuesday when Park admitted to sharing presidential speeches with her longtime friend Choi, who has never served in public office.
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Minjoo Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Choo Mi-ae speaks during a party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap) |
Joining the fray was some outspoken liberal politicians such as Seongnam City Mayor Lee Jae-myeong and Jung Chung-rae of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea. They urged the party leadership to promptly begin proceedings for impeachment.
But the proposal has gained little traction as the leaderships of political parties have doubts on whether the president’s wrongdoing would constitute grounds for impeachment and whether the political maneuver would work in their favor.
Former Minjoo leader Rep. Moon Jae-in urged that the president should order a complete resignation of her Cabinet members and appoint a new prime minister who can exercise bipartisanship amid the political crisis.
“It is the only way to bring the faltering nation back on track,” he said. “I am sincerely hoping that the president will not abandon her last duty as the head of the state. It is in the best interest of herself and the nation.”
“Most people don’t want our government system to be suspended. Fortunately, I and our party members agree with that,” said People’s Party’s leader Rep. Park Jie-won.
The president can be subject to impeachment when violating laws in performing official duties. The motion requires approvals by two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly and two-thirds of the Constitutional Court’s nine-member panel appointed by the president.
Back when a coalition of conservative and centrist parties passed the motion to impeach the late President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 for violation of political neutrality, the top court rejected the motion, saying that the allegation did not constitute grounds for the impeachment.
Faced with a torrent of backlash from the public, the then opposition Grand National Party, a forerunner to Saenuri, was defeated in the 2004 general election by the progressive Uri Party, the then ruling party that preceded Minjoo.
“Even if the Assembly were to agree on proposing impeachment, I don’t think it would be approved by Constitutional Court,” said Seoul National University law professor Cho Guk, who worked at a reform committee for Minjoo. “It is an expression of political outrage.”
Alarmed by the impeachment call, the ruling Saenuri Party’s leadership sought out options to salvage the beleaguered party, ranging from a shake-up of presidential aides and Cabinet members to demanding the defection of the president who is a Saenuri member.
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Leaders of the Saenuri Party, including Chairman Rep. Lee Jung-hyun (right), attend a meeting of Saenuri lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday. Yonhap |
“We agreed to ask the president to replace anyone involved with the scandal, regardless of how much they were involved,” Saenuri leader Rep. Lee Jung-hyun told reporters after a meeting with members of the party’s supreme council Wednesday.
Dissenting lawmakers outside the faction close to President Park continued to denounce the party leadership for failing to address the scandal, urging Saenuri leadership, mostly belonging to the pro-Park faction, to resign en masse.
Some conservative media outlets and online communities, meanwhile, floated the idea of impeaching the president. Chosun Ilbo has introduced the Chinese character for resignation in their papers and an impeachment call has appeared in Ilbe, an ultraconservative online community.
By Yeo Jun-suk (
jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)
