Court Ousts S Korea’s Scandal-Hit President after Impeachment

Local Editor

South Korea's disgraced President Park Geun-hye was formally removed from power Friday after the country's constitutional court unanimously upheld her impeachment for corruption and influence peddling.

The ruling, which opens the fallen president up to possible criminal proceedings, sparked angry protests from Park supporters in which two people were killed, police said.

The acting head of the eight-person court, Lee Jung Mi, said Park had "violated the principles of democracy and rule of law." The impeachment motion filed by lawmakers accused Park of extortion, bribery, abuse of power and leaking government secrets.

Prosecutors had already named Park a criminal suspect - and makes her South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be removed from office since democracy replaced dictatorship in the late 1980s. An election will be held within 60 days.

Park's impeachment also deepens South Korea's political and security uncertainty as the country faces existential threats from perennial rival North Korea, reported economic retaliation from a China furious about Seoul's cooperation with the US on an anti-missile system, and questions in Seoul about the new Trump administration's commitment to the countries' decades-long security alliance.

South Korea's opposition-controlled parliament voted for impeachment in December amid suspicions that Park colluded with a confidante, Choi Soon-sil, to filch from companies and to secretly manipulate state affairs. Park had apologized for putting trust in Choi but denies any legal wrongdoing.

Lee, however, said Park was fired on the primary grounds she had "abused her power in aiding her personal confidant [Choi]" as she sought personal and vested interest through ties with South Korean companies, including Samsung.

Although Park had not violated press freedom, Lee said, the court found she had "hid evidence and stirred up suspicions ... thereby nullifying the functions of the press and the constitution to check and balance."

"The accused showed no willingness to uphold our constitution," Lee told the court session, which was broadcast live to the nation - an unprecedented move.

The government put South Korea's military and police on heightened alert after the court decision.

Some of Park's supporters reacted with anger after the ruling, shouting and hitting police officers near the court with plastic flag poles and climbing on police buses. Anti-Park protesters celebrated by marching in the streets near the presidential Blue House, carrying flags, signs and an effigy of Park dressed in prison clothes and tied up with rope.

North Korean state media denounced Park as a "common criminal" after the decision. "She had one more year left as 'president' but, now she's been ousted, she will be investigated as a common criminal," the North's state KCNA news agency said.

The ruling instantly strips Park of her powers and also her immunity against prosecution. She could be interrogated by prosecutors seeking to indict her on criminal charges. Park had repeatedly refused to be interviewed by prosecutors over the scandal in recent months, but that will be harder to do if an arrest warrant is issued.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team