South Korean court to rule on president’s impeachment

By Anna Fifield  
Washington Post, SEOUL, 09.03.2017 — South Korea’s Constitutional Court will deliver its decision Friday in the sensational impeachment case against President Park Geun-hye, who’s at the center of a bribery scandal that has shocked a country all too familiar with corruption.  

If the court removes Park from office, she will make history again. Not only will she have been South Korea’s first female president, she will also become South Korea’s first president to be impeached.  But if the court reinstates her, it will generate a mass outpouring of anger from a public fed up with the corruption between the political and business elite, a system that is seen as holding ordinary people down.  The court has been hearing evidence for 10 weeks on the case, considering whether to uphold the motion passed by the National Assembly in December — with an overwhelming majority — to impeach her.  Since then, more explosive allegations have emerged, with special prosecutors this week saying they recommend a total of 13 charges against the president, including abuse of power and receiving bribes.