SKorean presidential impeachment delayed

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has escaped an impeachment vote this week, as the country’s biggest parliamentary party was reluctantly forced to delay proceedings Thursday.

The main opposition Democratic Party won an unexpected plurality in this year’s general election, and its impeachment motion had recently enjoyed the support of the whole liberal bloc as well as rebel lawmakers from the ruling Saenuri Party -- thus looking set to reach the required two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.

But Park actually appears to have boosted her chances of staying in office for the time being by conditionally offering to quit having seen her approval rating plummet to a record-low four percent over an influence-peddling scandal that escalated in October and remains under investigation.

Her resignation proposal Tuesday came with the proviso that the assembly must agree on a schedule and legal procedures -- and the parliament’s deadlock-prone parties have already been divided.

The Saenuri camp -- split between loyalists and anti-Park lawmakers -- is now unanimous in its desire for the president to step down in April, according to floor leader Chung Jin-suk on Thursday.

That outcome would allow a presidential election to be held in June -- still months earlier than scheduled but offering the ruling party more time to recover from the unpopularity of its association with Park.

The Democratic Party is absolutely against waiting until April, and began Thursday adamant that a vote to impeach the president must take place this Friday to give the Constitutional Court the chance to make a final decision before its chief justice ends his term in January.

However, the opposition bloc’s next biggest seat-holder -- the People’s Party -- broke ranks by urging a delay, with a spokesperson conceding that it was “effectively impossible for the motion to be passed” this week.

Local news agency Yonhap reported that the two liberal camps failed to narrow their differences during afternoon talks, so the plan is to ensure the rebel Saenuri faction fulfills its vow to back an impeachment motion Dec. 9.

Meanwhile, Park suffered the indignity of her late father’s birthplace in Gumi being attacked by a suspected arsonist Thursday.

Police have arrested a 48-year-old man in connection with the fire, which destroyed a memorial hall dedicated to Park Chung-hee -- who led South Korea for 18 years until his assassination in 1979.