Opinion Op-Ed Contributor
South Korean Corruption Will Endure
It is understandable that South Koreans would celebrate after their Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Friday to impeach President
Park Geun-hye, whose involvement with a shady and corrupt confidante has generated six weeks of huge street protests and demands for her resignation. The crisis, and Ms. Park’s precipitous fall in public support, had made it all but impossible for her to function effectively.
Yet this kind of end for any presidency is not really cause for celebration. However the crisis plays out — and it still has a way to go — Ms. Park’s plight is a symptom of faults in the political system that need to be fixed.
Ms. Park, the daughter of a long-ruling military strongman, Park Chung-hee, has not agreed to go quietly. She insists she will fight on in the Constitutional Court, which now has up to six months to decide whether she goes or stays. If the verdict is that she must go, elections for her successor will be held 60 days later.
In the meantime, Ms. Park has been suspended as president, which should quiet the streets and bring at least temporary stability. The crisis has kindled considerable uncertainty in a country, and a region, that can ill afford it. Ms. Park was hawkish toward North Korea and had irritated China by agreeing to deploy an advanced American missile defense system, and both policies are now in doubt. Japan and China have expressed concern about the political turmoil in Seoul, where Prime Minister Hwang Kyho-ahn, who is serving as acting president, has warned against provocations by the North.
The basic charges against Ms. Park are that throughout her presidency she has been under the influence of Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of a religious cult leader, allowing Ms. Choi to meddle in official affairs and to enrich herself. These revelations aroused a sense of betrayal among many Koreans who had seen in Ms. Park a democratic and corruption-free version of her father, who is still credited by many Koreans for putting their country on a track to prosperity.
But the Korea her father fostered in the 1970s was one in which huge conglomerates like Samsung and Hyundai not only led development but also forged ties between government and business that remain close and are increasingly resented. In 1987, after large protests similar to those against Ms. Park, the military-led government agreed to democratic reforms, including direct presidential elections. But every president since has been embroiled in some form of scandal.