South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been impeached:
South Korea's Parliament voted on Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, an aloof conservative who took a hard line against North Korea and rose to power with strong support from those who revered her father, the military dictator Park Chung-hee. The vote against Ms. Park, the nation's first female leader, followed weeks of damaging disclosures in a corruption scandal that has all but paralyzed the government and produced the largest street protests in the nation's history. Her powers will now be suspended as the Constitutional Court considers whether to remove her from office.
Ms. Park has been accused of allowing a shadowy confidante, the daughter of a religious sect leader, to exercise remarkable influence on matters ranging from choosing top government officials to her wardrobe, and of helping her extort tens of millions of dollars from South Korean companies. The scandal, which gained national attention less than two months ago, has cast a harsh light on collusion between the presidency and big business in one of Asia's most dynamic economies.
Parliament's motion for impeachment, accusing Ms. Park of "extensive and serious violations of the Constitution and the law," will now be taken up by the Constitutional Court, which has six months to decide whether the charges are true and merit her ouster.
The impeachment bill passed 234-56.
Also at BBC, DW, and the Washington Post.
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Samsung's vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, aka Jay Y. Lee, has become a suspect in a corruption probe linked to the South Korean President:
A South Korean special prosecutor's office will question Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a widening influence-peddling scandal that may force President Park Geun-hye from office. Prosecutors have been looking into whether Samsung payments of about 30 billion won ($25 million) for a business and foundations backed by Park's friend, Choi Soon-sil, were connected to a 2015 decision by the national pension fund to back a controversial merger of two group affiliates.
Park could become South Korea's first democratically elected leader to leave office early after parliament voted in December to impeach her over the corruption scandal, which has triggered big weekly rallies calling for her to step down. The impeachment must be upheld or overturned by the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, protests against President Park Geun-hye, who has been impeached but has resisted stepping down, are heating up:
A Buddhist monk in South Korea has died after setting himself on fire in protest over a 2015 deal struck with Japan on wartime sex slaves. The monk, named as Venerable Jung-won, 64, staged the protest on Saturday at a rally against President Park Geun-hye. He died on Monday night at a hospital in Seoul due to multiple organ failures caused by his burns.
[...] In 2015, Ms Park reached a deal with Japan which saw it promise to pay into a fund for South Korean women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War Two. As part of the deal, the two countries agreed that the compensation and an apology would "finally and irreversibly" resolve the matter.
Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye was behind bars in the Seoul Detention Centre on Friday after her arrest, on charges including bribery, in a corruption scandal that has brought low some of the country's business and political elite.
In a dramatic fall from power, Park, 65, became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. She is accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big businesses to contribute funds to foundations that backed her policy initiatives.
She and Choi, who is already in custody and on trial, deny any wrongdoing.
In the early hours of Friday, the Seoul Central District Court approved prosecutors' request for an arrest warrant for Park after she gave about eight hours of testimony.
Park and her lawyers had argued that she should not be arrested because she did not pose a flight risk and would not try to tamper with evidence. But the court disagreed, and said she might try to manipulate evidence.
Also at Straits Times, Korea Herald, and the Washington Post. Korea Times editorial.
Previously: South Korean President Park Geun-hye Impeached
President Park Geun-hye's Impeachment Upheld as South Korea's "Trial of the Century" Begins
The South Korean Presidential corruption scandal extends to the censorship of film and art:
South Korea's culture ministry apologized on Monday for a blacklist of artists which excluded them from government support, admitting there was a systematic effort to sideline critics of scandal-plagued President Park Geun-hye. The apology was the clearest admission yet of the blacklist of cultural and media figures critical of the impeached leader that has led to the arrests of her former chief of staff and the culture minister at the weekend for abuse of power.
"It is distressing and shameful that the ministry, which should have been the bulwark for freedom of artistic expression and creativity, has caused questions of fairness in assisting culture and arts with a list of artists to be excluded from public support," Vice Culture Minister Song Soo-keun said.
The blacklist, part of which was seen by Reuters, contains the names of thousands of actors, writers, film directors and others. It includes acclaimed film directors like Cannes award winner Park Chan-wook, Venice Film Festival top prize winner Kim Ki-duk and actors Moon So-ri and Song Gang-ho. None was immediately available for comment. Faced with a political crisis earlier in her term, the government and state entities used the blacklist as "guidelines" to penalize artists and censor content, a special prosecutor's office investigating an influence-peddling scandal said last week.
Related: South Korea Broadens Internet Censorship to Innocuous Music Videos
South Korean President Park Geun-hye Impeached
Samsung Vice Chairman a Suspect in South Korean Presidential Bribery Probe
South Korea's former President Park Geun-hye has been imprisoned for 24 years for her role in a corruption scandal:
Park became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be forced from office last year when the Constitutional Court ordered her out over a scandal that landed the heads of two conglomerates in jail. The court also fined Park, the daughter of a former military dictator, 18 billion won ($16.9 million) after finding her guilty of charges including bribery, abuse of power and coercion.
"The defendant abused her presidential power entrusted by the people, and as a result, brought massive chaos to the order of state affairs and led to the impeachment of the president, which was unprecedented," judge Kim Se-yoon said as he handed down the sentence.
Up to 1,000 Park supporters gathered outside the court, holding national flags and signs calling for an end to "political revenge" against her.
The court found Park guilty of colluding with her old friend, Choi Soon-sil, to receive about 7 billion won ($6.56 million) each from Lotte Group, a retail giant, and Samsung, the world's biggest maker of smartphones and semiconductors, while demanding 8.9 billion won from SK, an energy conglomerate. Most of the money was intended to bankroll non-profit foundations run by Choi's family and confidants, and to fund the education of Choi's horse-riding daughter, the court said.
Previously: South Korean President Park Geun-hye Impeached
President Park Geun-hye's Impeachment Upheld as South Korea's "Trial of the Century" Begins
Ousted South Korean Leader Behind Bars After Arrest on Bribery Charges
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Sentenced to Five Years in Corruption Scandal Ruling
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @07:56AM
So do we have any cannibals in Korea that can put this in context? I'm only vaguely familiar with the politics of Korea (and that is usually after it is analyzed in history books).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:13AM
Koreans are brave enough to impeach a woman, unlike Americans who are not brave enough to elect a woman.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:21AM
About 51 % of Americans voted for a woman president
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Friday December 09 2016, @08:41AM
I make it to be 20.1%: 64,156,255 voted for Ms. Clinton and 1,207,141 for Ms. Stein out of a total population of 324,954,000.
sources:
http://www.snopes.com/2016/11/13/who-won-the-popular-vote/ [snopes.com]
http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/how-many-votes-electoral-did-jill-stein-get-in-the-presidential-election/ [heavy.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:54AM
thanks for the numbers, but I think you should have compared the votes to the total number of eligible voters, not total population.
(i.e. don't count those under 18). That will probably raise the percentage to something like 30.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:59AM
*NEITHER* first party candidate won the election with even a greater than 50 percent VOTER MAJORITY.
We're supposed to trust someone who had a less than 50 percent acceptance rate to act as mostly-figurehead for 100 percent of the populace?
And that is really the cornerstone of what is wrong with America.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday December 09 2016, @03:09PM
Australia has compulsory voting for everybody, but that causes other problems. They do have a "None of the Above" option, though.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:14AM
We're supposed to trust someone who had a less than 50 percent acceptance rate to act as mostly-figurehead for 100 percent of the populace?
This is more visible in systems that allow for many parties, but it's still present in two-party systems like ours, just hidden. Voting for someone doesn't mean you truly support them, especially if you're voting for them simply because you believe them to be the lesser evil.
With that said, what else can be done? I'm not sure how to fix the problem of someone who received less than 50 percent of the population's support getting power over everyone.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:18AM
Around 30%, yes. Estimates from 2014 put the population aged 18 and up at 239.9 million, of which 219.9 million were citizens and 142.2 million were registered to vote—the latter represents a minority of the total population. Sad!
http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577.pdf [census.gov]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:10AM
thanks for the numbers, but I think you should have compared the votes to the total number of eligible voters, not total population.
This is what was said: "About 51 % of Americans voted for a woman president" It didn't say "eligible voters".
(Score: 2) by Kunasou on Friday December 09 2016, @08:45AM
> Vote me because I'm a woman.
In my country we have/had really bad presidents but at least they tried to lie better.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:51AM
I think hillary clinton is a woman. she may be lying about everything else, I've no idea...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:54AM
She's a reptilian.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday December 09 2016, @02:36PM
As far as I can tell from the 2009 documentary V, the lizard people have 3 genders, but only two are required for reproduction unlike that one species in ST:ENT that required all 3.
Hillary is a queen, and typically queens are only capable of laying one other queen egg (Chelsea in this case—I haven't overthought this at all!). Then there are the warriors the queen mates with, which are an important source of phosphorus. The mating ritual typically concludes with the queen consuming the warrior she mates with since even her fully developed mating skin does not contain enough phosphorus for egg production. Despite being only able to lay one queen egg, the queen seems to have some control over what portion of her eggs become warriors or the third gender.
The third gender is the worker gender. Unlike warriors, workers have the full intellectual capability of a queen but they are unable to reproduce through natural means.
When encountering a bigendered species such as humans, the lizard people generally use the following system to assign gendered human “skins.” The queens (there may be 3 or 4 generations present in any given invasion fleet) are given woman suits, the warriors are given male skins, and the workers are evenly assigned either gender from the host species.
One will also note that queens are capable of mating with human males who have been specially prepared. Typically a segment of their DNA is removed, and the male's mother must be given phosphorus supplements while she's pregnant with him. Again, the mating ritual concludes with consuming the mate for his phosphorus.
In that sense, one could argue that Hillary is both a woman and a lizard person.
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Friday December 09 2016, @08:35AM
That's more to do with American inability to conceive of being fucked by a woman. I mean how does that even work? Is there lube involved? Do I bend over? How dirty will I feel after the fact?
I mean sure, it's theoretically possible, but the logistics?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:04AM
Being fucked by a woman with a huge strap-on. It also lets them avoid the majority of STDs and fuck you longer and harder without the lack of lube affecting their senses.
I mean hey, if you're trying to rape someone it works much better if it hurts them without hurting you, right?
(Score: 2) by quintessence on Friday December 09 2016, @09:24AM
Yeah, I've always been a bit askance at the whole strap-on/pegging bit.
I mean unless there are sensors that connect directly to a neural pathway, it's just a piece of plastic. More like factory work really; Put it in, pull it out, put it in, pull it out.
You ever hear of someone fantasizing about working a factory line? Me neither.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 09 2016, @07:23PM
There's a reason why women wear strap-ons the way they do, and many versions include features designed for the wearer.
Holding a dildo in your hand would otherwise provide better control for less effort.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:25AM
My favorite politician is a woman (Margaret Thatcher) and I would never have voted for Clinton.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:37AM
Oh come on! You know she doesn't count.
Privileged white lady who hit the glass ceiling of being ruler of one of the most powerful nations on earth. If it wasn't for all the sexism she endured, she would have risen to the level of Galactic Master, where the real power resides.
Without affirmative action, she never would have gotten so far as a secretary of the local counsel.
Feminism made that woman. She is standing on the broken backs of all the women's studies that came before her.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday December 09 2016, @03:21PM
I think that you will find she was only the Prime Minister - HM Queen is the ruler, although that is a rather more decorative title than practical one.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @03:48PM
We the Queen can send troops, talk to me.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday December 09 2016, @06:34PM
Not without direction from Parliament she can't. The military oath of allegiance in the UK is:
The Queen however, does not give any direct orders: they are directed by Parliament (normally the Cabinet) to the Ministry of Defence (the Chiefs of Staff).
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @06:37PM
> HM Queen is the ruler,
No, the queen is the queen. In other countries queen might be synonymous with ruler, but not in the UK. Not any more.
Yours is he worst kind of semantic hairsplitting, even if it were technically correct it would not reveal any new insight (<== which is par for semantic hairsplitting) and its not even technically correct (<== which hairsplitters at least usually get right).
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday December 09 2016, @04:51PM
Or maybe Americans are smart enough to nip things in the bud. You know, Palin, Hillary -- neither should be near power and their anatomy has no bearing on that fact.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @01:19PM
Since all the soybeans are too busy masturbating to this story instead of understanding it, here's the blog post that first really explained WTF is going on with Park to the english-speaking world:
The Irrational Downfall of Park Geun-hye [blogspot.ca]
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday December 09 2016, @04:46PM
This should be in the summary. I saw the protests were occurring on account of corruption, but the backstory was not clear to me.
The illogical corruption argument reminds me of rationalism in economic theory. You can predict people's actions when they act rationally, so if your president is acting irrationally in some facet of their life how can you trust them with your country's future?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_choice_theory [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @07:59AM
Haha stupid Norks, always lying, can't do shit. Wait, this bad news is about the good Korea? Well fuck me, now I don't know what to think.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:19AM
Best Korea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @11:02AM
Worst Korea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @10:30PM
A Tale of Two Kimchis?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by WizardFusion on Friday December 09 2016, @09:55AM
choosing top government officials to her wardrobe
I believe that the word you are looking for is cabinet.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Friday December 09 2016, @11:39AM
Well, this is interesting. Could be a translation error. It is perfectly possible that someone helped her with her wardrobe, but that would hardly be news (lots of VIPs have someone for that).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @01:22PM
ok, this summary is now going on my list of things that I love and hate about English.
as far as I can tell, the summary can be interpreted as "the confidante helped with everything from choosing ministers to choosing dresses, ...", or indeed there may be a translation error.
but this is the new york times. I really hope, for their sake, that this is not a translation error.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:33PM
It really is about wardrobe [bbc.com].
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday December 09 2016, @12:34PM
Perhaps that shadowy confidante who is advising her is a faun named "Mr Tumnus" who she found after going through a wardrobe?
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 09 2016, @03:01PM
I skimmed through that bit and I thought the meaning was that the spiritual adviser told her what to wear as well as who to extort. Oops.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @12:26PM
well corruption flourishes in a overly bureaucratic system.
who wouldn't take a short cut if going through the official channels seems to take forever?
also, having a excessive bureaucracy helps to keep control by extra-legal means because
it forces people/companies to take a short cut which puts them on the "blacklist" which
"the rulers" will be pulled out if there's nothing else available to nuke (get rid) of them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 09 2016, @12:56PM
In the 70's and 80's South Korea was ruled by autocrats. There were constant mass protests from students and workers. It was recent that they broke away from that and became a real democracy. Now they've impeached the president for corruption. It's astonishing for a country where the chaebol still control everything. Good job, South Korea!
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @01:15PM
The only reason they impeached her was because this corruption wasn't run of the mill corruption.
It differed not in scale but in kind.
Park's corruption was more like nancy reagan using an astrologer amped up by a million.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 09 2016, @07:28PM
> The only reason they impeached her was because this corruption wasn't run of the mill corruption.
> It differed not in scale but in kind.
I was gonna say "she's not one of the boys", as we regularly see when women rise to the top in tech.
But then again:
> rose to power with strong support from those who revered her father, the military dictator Park Chung-hee.
So her problem might be that she's one of the boys, but not dictatorial enough for people longing for her dad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:26PM
> I was gonna say "she's not one of the boys", as we regularly see when women rise to the top in tech.
In politics, when a woman rises to the top, its usually because she is "one of the boys."
That's because politics, especially outside of the first world, is insular.
That's how near theocracies like pakistan and the phillipines were able to have female heads of state decades before the US will.