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South Korea presidential frontrunner stresses need to 'embrace' North Impeached Park Geun-hye leaves South Korea presidential compound
(about 4 hours later)
The liberal politician expected to succeed disgraced Park Geun-hye as South Korea’s next president could make significant policy changes on North Korea, a US missile-defence system that has enraged China and powerful big business. Disgraced South Korean leader Park Geun-hye has left the presidential Blue House, two days after a court dismissed her over a corruption scandal, bound for her private home and facing the possibility of prosecution and jail.
A constitutional court on Friday dismissed Park from office after upholding her impeachment over a corruption scandal involving “chaebol” – the family-run conglomerates that dominate Asia’s fourth-biggest economy. Park left the compound on Sunday in a motorcade of fast-driving black cars, flanked by police motorbikes, after bidding farewell to staff, an official said. She was heading for her home in the Gangnam district of the capital, Seoul, where hundreds of flag-waving supporters waited.
Thousands of Park’s opponents rallied in Seoul on Saturday, where they have been gathering every weekend for months, to celebrate her departure and demand that she be arrested. The former president’s conservative supporters also took to the streets not far away, though fewer in number. Police were out in force with riot shields but there were no reports of trouble. “President Park Geun-hye has just now departed the Blue House and headed for her private home,” a Blue House official said by text message.
A presidential election will be held by 9 May and opinion polls suggest South Koreans will opt for change by electing a liberal into the presidential Blue House, ending nine years of conservative rule. The constitutional court ruled on Friday to uphold a parliamentary vote to impeach Park, dismissing her from office over an influence-peddling scandal that has shaken the country’s political and business elite.
The frontrunner is Moon Jae-in, a human rights lawyer who was an aide to former president Roh Moo-hyun, an advocate of a “sunshine policy” of engagement with North Korea. A snap presidential election will be held by 9 May. The liberal politician likely to become the next president, Moon Jae-in, has promised to work for justice and common sense.
Moon has criticised the two former conservative presidents – Park and her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak – for derailing the progress made in inter-Korean relations during the previous liberal administrations. “We still have a long way to go. We have to make this a country of justice, of common sense through regime change,” Moon, an advocate of a “sunshine policy” of engagement with North Korea, told a news conference: “We all have to work together for a complete victory.”
He calls for a “two-step” approach on North Korea, with talks leading first to “economic unification” and ultimately “political and military unification”. Moon has criticised the two former conservative presidents – Park and her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak – for derailing the progress made in inter-Korean relations during the previous liberal administrations. He calls for a two-step approach on North Korea, with talks leading first to economic unification and ultimately political and military unification.
Moon on Sunday stressed the need to “embrace and be united with” the North Korean people, while adding that he could never accept its “dictatorial regime”, or its trampling of rights.Moon on Sunday stressed the need to “embrace and be united with” the North Korean people, while adding that he could never accept its “dictatorial regime”, or its trampling of rights.
He denounced the North’s “cruel and ruthless behaviour” in the wake of the murder in Malaysia last month of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But he told a news conference there was no choice but to recognise Kim Jong-un as leader.He denounced the North’s “cruel and ruthless behaviour” in the wake of the murder in Malaysia last month of Kim Jong-nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. But he told a news conference there was no choice but to recognise Kim Jong-un as leader.
“We can’t deny that the ruler of the North Korean people is Kim Jong-un,” Moon said. “We have no choice but to recognise Kim Jong-un as a counterpart, whether we put pressure and impose sanctions on North Korea or hold dialogue.”“We can’t deny that the ruler of the North Korean people is Kim Jong-un,” Moon said. “We have no choice but to recognise Kim Jong-un as a counterpart, whether we put pressure and impose sanctions on North Korea or hold dialogue.”
A conciliatory line might face opposition from main ally, the United States, where aides of the president, Donald Trump, are pressing to complete a strategy review on how to counter North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats. Moon, a human rights lawyer, called on Park to publicly accept the court ruling and said she should not try to destroy or remove any documents when she left the Blue House on Sunday.
North Korea conducted two nuclear tests last year, as well as numerous missile launches, the latest on 6 March, when it fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan. Park, 65, is South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office. Her dismissal followed months of political paralysis and turmoil over the graft scandal that also landed the head of the Samsung conglomerate in jail and facing trial.
Speaking to reporters recently, Moon invoked his old boss, Roh, and Roh’s predecessor, Nobel peace prize winner Kim Dae-jung, the architect of the “sunshine policy”, as inspirations behind his bid for the presidency. The crisis has coincided with rising tension with North Korea and anger from China over the deployment in South Korea of a US missile-defence system.
The two former liberal presidents both held summits with the North’s then-leader, Kim Jong-il – the only such meetings ever – promising reconciliation and initiating joint projects, including the Kaesong Industrial Complex and tours to Mount Kumgang in the North. Both were suspended under conservative administrations. Park did not appear in court on Friday and she has not made any comment since. She remained in the Blue House, prompting some grumbling from critics keen to see her stripped of the privileges of power.
Moon said South Korea should resume operations at Kaesong – where South Korean companies operate factories with North Korean workers on the North Korean side of the border - regardless of North’s nuclear ambitions. Some conservatives have denounced Moon as “pro-North”. Her dismissal marked a dramatic fall from grace of South Korea’s first female president and daughter of Cold War military dictator Park Chung-hee.
He would also face conservative ire if he were to delay deployment of a US missile defence system. Alarmed by North Korean weapons tests, South Korea and the United States have agreed to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile system in South Korea, angering China, which sees the system’s sophisticated radar as a threat to its own security. The first elements of the system arrived in South Korea last week. Now, having lost presidential immunity, she could face criminal charges over bribery, extortion and abuse of power in connection with allegations of conspiring with her friend, Choi Soon-sil.
Moon says a final decision on deployment should be made by the next government, and parliament should approve it. But that could cost him in the polls if defence becomes a big election issue, said Myongjin University politics professor Kim Hyong-joon. “He’s perceived as lacking a sense of national security,” Kim said. Both women denied wrongdoing.
On business, Moon has called for reform of the chaebol, addressing Koreans’ concerns over their influence and involvement in the scandal that brought down Park.
Moon has said chaebols stifle smaller companies and are detrimental to the economy. But he is unlikely to introduce radical reform, or ramp up corporate taxes, let alone dismantle them, as some critics urge. “I just want transparent and democratic management,” he said recently.