The Constitutional Court of South Korea has officially upheld the decision of the state’s National Assembly to impeach President Park Geun-hye as of March 9, 2017. President Geun-hye made history as the first female president of South Korea, officially self-designated the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.). Now, she makes history once more as the first president of South Korea to ever be removed from office by way of impeachment. The National Assembly is comprised of eight judges, and all eight unanimously reached the consensus to remove President Park, which comes as little surprise to those who have watched the process unfold since a scandal in 2016 drastically impinged upon her popularity in the country.
Historically, South Korea’s government has long been fraught with corruption, and President Park’s scandal only perpetuates the problem. For several consecutive weeks, detrimental disclosures released to the media and damaged the Park Administration’s public appearance and, more importantly, rapidly stacked grounds for impeachment. These disclosures accused Park of letting a duplicitous aide, Choi Soon-il, who happened to be the daughter of a religious sect leader to greatly impact and influence critical matters of domestic policy, appearing to wield Park like a puppet. Choi decided who Park would appoint to top government positions and cooperated with Park in the extortion of several South Korean companies to the tune of tens of millions of dollars donated to philanthropic organizations Choi controls.
