President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeolis an attempt to disclose Take Marshall The result came on Tuesday this week Impeachment motion Against that, which, in turn, failed miserably on Saturday. The proposal, which came days after Yun’s controversial announcement, failed to garner enough votes and members of her ruling party boycotted the vote, preventing its passage.
The vote was seen as a turning point in South Korea’s political crisis, one of the worst the country has faced in decades. The crisis threatened the country’s reputation as a stable democracy, and the decision to halt the impeachment vote came after mounting domestic and international pressure.
Despite the scandal, Yun, unlike the former president, survived his impeachment Park Geun-hyeWhose own impeachment came in 2016 after a major corruption scandal. The differences between the two events highlight the changing dynamics of South Korean politics.
Because of this Yun survived his impeachment
on Saturday, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik declared the impeachment motion invalid, explaining that it failed to meet the required quorum of a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly. The vote reached only 195 votes, well below the required threshold. Criticizing the failure to hold a qualified vote on such a critical issue, Wu called the result “very regrettable”. He also expressed concern over the embarrassment caused to the country’s democratic processes.
“Failure to hold a qualified vote on this matter means that we have not even been able to use the democratic process of decision-making on a critical national issue,” Wu said, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.
Yun’s survival in impeachment motions is largely attributed to his judgment People Power Party (PPP), which successfully boycotted the vote to ensure the proposal did not pass. Unlike Park’s impeachment, which saw significant support within her ruling party, Yoon’s case has been marked by a unified defense from her party. This was seen as the result of political maneuvering, where the ruling party feared further division and electoral defeat if Yun was removed from office.
Why was former President Park Geun-hye’s 2016 corruption scandal so damaging?
In contrast, the impeachment of Park Geun-hye in 2016 was the product of a corruption scandal that captivated South Korea and led to widespread protests. Park was accused of colluding with her close friend Choi Soon-sil, who used her influence to extort money from companies and pressure government officials.
The scandal led to Park’s impeachment, with members of her own Senuri party also supporting her removal. The political fallout from Park’s scandal was swift and severe, leading to the downfall of her party.
The Saenuri Party fractured following Park’s impeachment, with the anti-Park faction breaking away to form the Baryun Party, while the remaining conservatives rebranded as the Liberty Korea Party. The split weakened the conservative camp in the 2017 snap election, which resulted in the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate Moon Jae-in winning the presidency.
The conservative group has struggled for years to regain public trust after losing political ground following Park’s impeachment. The PPP, the current ruling party, was formed by the merger of the Liberty Korea Party and the Byeun Party. However, even after the merger, the Conservatives still found it difficult to regain voter support, securing only one-third of the seats in the National Assembly in the 2020 general elections.
Many conservative politicians involved in Park’s administration faced investigations or were forced to retire due to their involvement in corruption scandals. Some struggled to get political nominations, even when they managed to get nominations, they lost elections. These political and legal challenges forced Yun to bring figures from the previous Lee Myung-bak administration—Park’s predecessor—into his government to help stabilize his position.
Fear of electoral disaster
The main reason that Yun survived his impeachment, while Park did not, lies in the ruling party’s fear of electoral “destruction”. When Park was impeached, her party, the Saenuri Party, lost public trust and collapsed. Many within the PPP fear a similar outcome if Yun is impeached. The ruling party fears that the opposition, led by Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leader Lee Jae-myung, will seize power in a snap election following Yun’s ouster.
Additionally, PPP lawmakers fear that removing Yun could lead to a complete electoral collapse, with many losing their parliamentary seats in the next general election. This fear contributes to strong resistance to impeachment within the ruling party.
Rap. Kim Gi-hyeon, a pro-Yoon lawmaker, emphasized the lasting political damage caused by Park’s impeachment, saying the party suffered national divisions and lost all credibility. “If we impeach a president we elected again, we will never be able to ask the people to elect us (conservatives) next time,” he wrote on Facebook.
As a result, despite the political crisis created by Yoon’s declaration of martial law, the ruling party has chosen to rally behind Park Geun-hye, avoiding her fate and maintaining her grip on power, at least for now.