The Seoul Central District Court in South Korea is scheduled to hold a trial on March 30, 2017 on whether to approve the arrest of former President Park Geun-hye. March 19, 2017, in

Speaker : Shi Zhe (Ph.D. in International Relations)

Topic : Park Geun-hye , THAAD and the Korean Peninsula

Location : Guangzhou Book Purchase Center

hosted : International issues self-media "World Sensitivity"

[Editor's note] :

The Seoul Central District Court in South Korea is scheduled to hold a trial on March 30, 2017 on whether to approve the arrest of former President Park Geun-hye. Previously, on March 10, the Constitutional Court of South Korea ruled unanimously that the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye by the South Korean Congress on December 9, 2016 was established, and his presidential powers were immediately suspended. Park Geun-hye became the first president in Korean history to step down due to impeachment.

On March 19, 2017, at an academic lecture event hosted by the international issues self-media "World Sensitivity" at the Guangzhou Book Center, Shi Zhe, a doctor of international relations and a senior media person in Guangzhou, shared his research experience with the audience on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye and related issues. Dr. Shi Zhe believes that the successful impeachment of the head of state is a remarkable institutional achievement in South Korea. However, at the same time, this matter cannot be said to be a victory for the common people. On the contrary, it is precisely because the people are too eager that the technical content of this impeachment is low, and it is unlikely to lead to system improvements in the future.

The following is the transcript of Dr. Shi Zhe’s speech, which was exclusively authorized by the organizer of the event to be published by The Paper (www.thepaper.cn):

Doctor of international relations and senior media person Shi Zhe

On the morning of March 10, 2017, the Constitutional Court of South Korea voted 8 to 0 to pass the impeachment case against President Park Geun-hye. The decision took effect immediately. Park Geun-hye became the first president to be impeached and removed from office since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. From October 24, 2016, when South Korea’s JTBC TV station first reported the Choi Soon-sil political interference scandal, to the time Park Geun-hye was impeached and stepped down, there was only just over four months. This process, whether compared with the Roh Moo-hyun impeachment case in Korean history, or the Nixon impeachment case and Clinton impeachment case in American history, is incredibly fast. The successful impeachment of the head of state in such a short period of time is of course a remarkable institutional achievement for South Korea. But at the same time, it cannot be said to be a victory for the common people. On the contrary, it is precisely because the people are too eager that the technical content of this impeachment is low, and it is unlikely to lead to system improvements in the future.

Hasty impeachment

In the process of Park Geun-hye's resignation, the anti-Park Geun-hye Korean civil forces played a big role. On the night when JTBC broadcast the news of Choi Soon-sil's political intervention, many Koreans ran to the streets overnight to demand Park Geun-hye's resignation. Every weekend after

, a large number of people gathered to protest. Every time, there were huge crowds of people, and the scene was very spectacular. It is conceivable how anxious the Korean people are about having Park Geun-hye step down, and they want her to leave the Blue House (the official residence of the President of South Korea) as soon as possible.

This mentality of seeking speed in everything has now become part of South Korea’s national character. If you often go to Korea, the first Korean words you learn may be "An-Niang" (Hello) and "Ba-Li" (Hurry). On the streets of Korea, you can hear "Ba-Li" in various tones. In fact, before the Joseon Dynasty, this word was not enough to sum up the character of Koreans.

But in modern times, South Korea was first occupied by Japan, then accepted the trusteeship of the United States, and was also in close combat with China. At this time, the Koreans discovered that the so-called three thousand miles of country was not enough to retreat. One step back would be the sea. Due to the country's troubled fortunes and the long-term dictatorship it experienced after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1948, Koreans hope to build an independent modern country as quickly as possible. Therefore, from the beginning of the economic take-off, they will always emphasize that it should be faster and faster. For example, the Japanese have spent more than 20 years promoting garbage classification. Guangzhou, China has been doing this for more than ten years, but it seems to have no effect. South Korea began to implement garbage classification in early 2006 and achieved the first phase goal in about nine months. Garbage classification reached about 30% of the city's waste disposal volume. In these respects, Koreans' "quick, quick, quick" is a good thing. But the problem is that the progress of the system is a slow process and cannot be rushed.

On the morning when the Constitutional Court of South Korea announced the results of the impeachment case, there was a very interesting detail: Acting President of the Constitutional Court Lee Jin-mi was photographed by the media after arriving. In the photo, the red hair band on her head was clearly visible. Based on my understanding of Koreans, Koreans are very particular about personal clothing, makeup, and etiquette. Even if a person goes out to buy a bottle of water, he would not just pick up some clothes and put them on and leave. For any important occasion, I will definitely put on makeup and choose clothes one or two hours in advance. But at such a historic moment, as a woman with status, Dean Lee Jin-mi actually made such a big flaw in her clothing in front of so many media cameras. This is something that is unimaginable in South Korea.

This detail shows how tense and hasty the process of Park Geun-hye’s impeachment case was. From the first media report on October 24 to the impeachment passed by Congress on December 9, there were only about 45 days in between. What are you going to do in these 45 days? Congress must appoint a special prosecutor and form a special prosecution team. Then the team led by the special prosecutor will verify the news media reports, collect evidence, form an evidence chain, determine the charges for prosecution, formulate a report, and submit it to Congress. There are only 90 days between when Congress passed the impeachment on December 9 and March 10, and the impeachment review period under Korean law is 180 days. We know that general civil litigation usually takes 60 to 90 days from filing to trial. If the impact is relatively large, it is common to take more than a few years. However, the impeachment of a president has a total of 13 charges, but it can be completed in 135 days. It is said that during these 90 days, the justices were reviewing files and thinking almost continuously, and were still working at 3 a.m. on the day when the impeachment result was announced. The quality of the impeachment made under such circumstances can be imagined.

Comparison of several impeachment cases

We can compare the Park Geun-hye impeachment case with the Roh Moo-hyun impeachment case more than ten years ago. Roh Moo-hyun took office as president in February 2003, and soon encountered big troubles. First, his cronies were accused of accepting illegal political funds during the campaign. Second, he publicly expressed support for his party before the congressional elections, and was accused of violating the "Election Law" that stipulates that the president should remain neutral in congressional elections.

On November 10, 2003, the South Korean Congress passed a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the above-mentioned matters. On November 25, Roh Moo-hyun vetoed the bill. On December 4, Congress passed the special inspection bill again. On March 8, 2004, South Korea's prosecutorial agency announced the results of a mid-term investigation into illegal political funds. South Korea's two major opposition parties subsequently submitted a motion to impeach the president to Congress on the 9th, citing three charges: the president violated election laws, the president's cronies received political funds, and the president was responsible for the economic downturn. On March 12, the South Korean Congress passed the impeachment of Roh Moo-hyun. Roh Moo-hyun was suspended from office and Prime Minister Go Gun served as acting president. On May 14, 2004, the Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment case, and Roh Moo-hyun immediately resumed the exercise of presidential power. This impeachment did not last long, but the fermentation and warm-up of the incident took more than half a year, which was much longer than the Park Geun-hye impeachment case.

Let’s look at Clinton’s impeachment case again. Clinton took office as President of the United States on January 20, 1991. In May 1994, a woman accused Clinton of sexual harassment while serving as governor. During the litigation process of this case, the Lewinsky incident was brought out. On January 28, 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno authorized independent prosecutor Starr to investigate the matter. On September 9, Starr concluded the investigation and submitted a 445-page investigation report on Clinton and 36 boxes of attachments to Congress. On October 8, 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry and passed the impeachment inquiry on December 19. On January 7, 1999, the Senate began the impeachment trial of Clinton. On February 12, impeachment was rejected. This incident took almost 5 years.

Let’s compare the Nixon impeachment case. On June 17, 1972, five people, led by James McCord, the chief security adviser of the Nixon campaign, broke into the office of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Building in Washington. They were arrested on the spot while installing bugs and secretly photographing relevant documents.After the incident, Nixon tried his best to cover it up and exonerate it. However, during the subsequent investigation of the case, many people in the Nixon administration were exposed one after another, and were directly involved in Nixon himself, which triggered a serious constitutional crisis. On October 31, 1973, the U.S. House of Representatives decided that the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives would be responsible for investigating and collecting evidence of Nixon's crimes in preparation for his impeachment. On August 8, 1974, Nixon resigned. From the outbreak of the "Watergate Incident" to Nixon's resignation, more than 2 years passed.

It can be seen from the above that the two impeachments against the president in the United States lasted for a long time, several years before and after, and the charges given were also very solid. Clinton was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, while Nixon was charged with many, many crimes that violated the bottom line of Americans, including obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential power, contempt of Congress, etc. These crimes have strict legal requirements and are very strict. South Korea’s two impeachments, the first one was slightly better, but some of the charges were political, such as Roh Moo-hyun’s charge of “taking responsibility for the economic downturn.” This is a charge that is not stipulated in the law and direct evidence can never be found. No one can prove the relationship between Roh Moo-hyun and South Korea’s economic downturn.

Park Geun-hye’s impeachment case has even more flaws. The charges of abusing his power to interfere with the appointment and dismissal of public officials, infringing on the civil service system, infringing on freedom of public opinion, violating the president's obligation to protect the right to life during the Sewol sinking incident, and failing to honestly perform presidential powers were all dismissed by the Constitutional Court as insufficient evidence. The Constitutional Court held that it could not prove that the resignation of some civil servants was related to Park Geun-hye's intervention, nor could it prove that Park Geun-hye, including her team, exerted pressure on a newspaper. It also believed that Park Geun-hye's whereabouts on the day of the Sewol ferry accident had nothing to do with impeachment. When the evidence was weak and the relevant documents, circumstantial evidence, recordings, etc. were insufficient, the relevant charges were grandly included in the indictment submitted to the Constitutional Court. South Korea's prosecutors were really childish.

was found guilty of "allowing Choi Soon-sil to interfere in state affairs and abuse of power". In fact, there are also big problems. Park Geun-hye asked her friend Choi Soon-sil to provide her with some private opinions and consultation. Is this interference in national affairs? The donation from the large consortium was made to a foundation controlled by Choi Soon-sil, and Park Geun-hye herself did not take any money. If Park Geun-hye is well prepared and has a good legal team, it is not impossible to avoid considerable responsibility.

In modern society, impeaching a president is a very serious matter and must be done with caution. Unless a major crime such as treason is committed, impeachment will generally not be passed easily. The impeachment case of Park Geun-hye is a major event in the history of South Korea. As a constitutional case, we should strive to be impeccable in every aspect and be able to withstand the scrutiny of history. This requires the judge to eliminate all interference and make an independent judgment based solely on the law. But in fact, the 8-0 verdict made in a short period of time seems to be to cater to the people and give their demonstrations a satisfactory explanation. This feels childish.

Torn South Korea

The current degree of division in Korean society surrounding the Park Geun-hye impeachment case can be compared to the situation in Taiwan when couples and relatives turned against each other during the blue-green confrontation era. Koreans told me such a real case: a man and a woman were getting married, and the wedding date was set. The man and woman went to visit their parents together, but just because they had different views on impeaching Park Geun-hye, the marriage failed because the parents firmly disagreed.

In the past, in South Korea, to judge a person's conservatism or progress, the first question to ask was your attitude towards North Korea. If you supported relatively tough policies and sanctions against North Korea and opposed North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons, then you were basically a conservative. If you support contact with North Korea and Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy", you are a progressive. After the Park Geun-hye impeachment case came out, a new conservative and progressive evaluation standard emerged, that is, whether they support the impeachment, those who support it belong to the progressives, and those who oppose it belong to the conservative forces.Moreover, there is a roughly obvious age division. Those who oppose impeachment tend to be older, while those who support impeachment are basically young people. There is at least a generation difference. This has led to many couples turning against each other and causing tension between parents and children. Because young people basically support impeachment, and old people basically oppose impeachment, many young people do not go to their parents’ homes during this period, and do not want their parents to take care of their children. (Kim Dae-jung was born in 1924 and died in 2009. He served as the President of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. - Editor's Note)

This kind of thing has never happened in Korean history, because Koreans attach great importance to family ties. Since Park Geun-hye refuses to accept the verdict and says that history will prove her innocence, it is expected that this tearing situation will continue.

Many people think that impeachment is a victory for the common people, and the head of state was removed by holding candlelight gatherings by the people. But I feel that it is precisely because the people are too eager for quick success and short-circuit the time for thinking and discussion that they should have, that the technical content of this impeachment is too low, and therefore the room for progress it triggers is destined to be extremely limited. Such hasty impeachment will also encourage people to adopt such short-term and quick methods to solve complex political problems in the future, which is not a good thing for South Korea's political stability.

From the perspective of GDP per capita, South Korea is undoubtedly a developed country. But at the institutional level, tradition has a very profound imprint on the political system, thinking patterns, and behavioral patterns. This cannot be changed overnight by haste, nor can it be supported by the economy. Change requires slow accumulation and is a very slow process.

An era without politicians

Since South Korea entered the era of democratization in 1988, no president can escape the curse of relatives and cronies. Quan Doo-hwan 's son and brother-in-law were sentenced for tax evasion. The daughter of successor president Roh Tae-woo was sentenced to probation by a U.S. court in 1993 for bringing $190,000 in cash into the United States. Although the democratically elected president Kim Young-sam , who has always claimed to be incorruptible, disclosed his wealth, he still lost face because of his son's corruption scandal. President Kim Dae-jung, a democracy fighter, has 12 relatives suspected of corruption, and his three sons were all imprisoned, ruining his reputation. President Roh Moo-hyun, who was known for his integrity and self-restraint, committed suicide by jumping off a cliff out of shame and anger after his wife and brother accepted bribes. The subsequent president Lee Myung-bak came from a humble background and became the CEO of Hyundai E&C through personal efforts. However, he was also disgraced because of his brother's bribery scandal. Park Geun-hye did not allow her younger siblings to approach the Blue House, but they ended up carrying her on her best friend. This shows that South Korea's system has major loopholes in this regard, but everyone only focuses on blaming Park Geun-hye, but no one investigates the reasons in the system. (Chun Doo-hwan was born in 1931 and served as president from 1980 to 1988; Roh Tae-woo was born in 1933 and served as president from 1988 to 1993; Kim Young-sam was born in 1927 and died in 2015 and served as president from 1993 to 1998; Roh Moo-hyun was born In 1946, he committed suicide in May 2009 and served as president from 2003 to 2008. Lee Myung-bak was born in 1941 and served as president from 2008 to 2013. ——Editor's note)

After Park Geun-hye stepped down, twenty or thirty people emerged to elect the president. I asked Koreans, which of these people do you think is more impressive? Basically, I asked 10 people, and 9 couldn't answer. Currently, Moon Jae-in has the highest approval rating in the polls. People remember him as Roh Moo-hyun's assistant, but they can't remember anything else he has done. Many people support Moon Jae-in because they love Roh Moo-hyun and the country. Moon Jae-in went on a hunger strike to protest after the Sewol ferry accident. However, in the early years, the boss of the Sewol cruise ship was arrested for other matters, and it was Moon Jae-in who bailed him out. Therefore, some people joked that Park Geun-hye was blamed for the Sewol accident, but Moon Jae-in was the culprit.

Ranked second is Ahn Hee-jung, a man of action. He has served as the governor of Chungcheongnam-do since 2010 and is equivalent to our provincial governor. He is also the youngest chief among the 17 local autonomous units in South Korea. He is known for his excellent local governance capabilities. Some Koreans even moved to Chungcheongnam-do for this purpose. Unfortunately, he and Moon Jae-in belong to the same party, and Moon Jae-in is older and more prestigious.

Ranked third is Ahn Cheol-soo . He is a doctor of medicine, entrepreneur, computer virus expert, dean of Seoul National University Integration Graduate School, and founder of the computer anti-virus software company Dr. Ahn Research Institute. He is a typical cross-border successful person. Dr. An's safety products have always ranked first in the market share in South Korea, much higher than other domestic and international manufacturers. He has many industrial policies, especially now that South Korea's economy is in recession. Many people think he will make a difference in this area. But judging from the polls, he has been surpassed by several people, so I am not particularly optimistic about him.

There is also a candidate who has emerged because of the Park Geun-hye impeachment case called Lee Jae-myung, who is the mayor of Seongnam City. He is known as South Korea's "Big Mouth" and "Korean Trump", which means that he often makes outrageous remarks. This person was the first senior figure in the opposition party to suggest that Park Geun-hye should resign. The other candidates' political platforms basically all discuss the causes and consequences. Lee Jae-myung's platform is simple and crude, such as: if elected, "THAAD" will be abolished; severe sanctions should not be imposed on North Korea; the relationship with the United States should be re-examined; and the agreement on the comfort women issue signed by Park Geun-hye and Japan should be re-examined. His way of expressing himself is exactly the same as Trump's, but his political stance is completely reversed. Trump is a true conservative, and Lee Jae-myung is a progressive, but he has subverted many previous perceptions of Korean society. Li Zaiming's approval rating has risen rapidly, but it still cannot catch up with the above-mentioned people.

Judging from the above situation, in the presidential election on May 9, Moon Jae-in is currently the most likely to be elected. Regarding the "THAAD" issue, Moon Jae-in has previously expressed his preference to negotiate a solution with China. We can only wait and see.