The Tumult in South Korea

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/opinion/the-tumult-in-south-korea.html

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The good news in the removal of Park Geun-hye as president of South Korea is that it marks a maturing of the country’s democracy and its institutions. Months of widespread protests against Ms. Park’s shady dealings with a corrupt confidante had made it impossible for her to continue in office, and the impeachment process through the Parliament and the Constitutional Court was politically proper and free of violence. But there isn’t much time to celebrate.

The ouster of the president, the first woman to hold the office in South Korea and daughter of the long-ruling strongman Park Chung-hee, adds political uncertainty to a time of high tension in East Asia. It followed a number of ballistic missile tests by North Korea and the American decision to install an antimissile system in South Korea, which prompted China to take retaliatory economic steps against South Korea.

South Korea must now choose a new president within 60 days, with the strong possibility that Ms. Park’s conservative administration will be replaced by leftist leaders skeptical about the deployment of the American antimissile system, unhappy with growing tension with China and likely to prefer negotiating with North Korea rather than isolating it.

The acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, who will remain in office until a new president is elected, declared that the lack of a president amounted to a national “emergency” and called cabinet ministers to put the country on a heightened state of military readiness.

Ms. Park’s ouster does not end the spreading corruption scandal. Without the immunity of the presidency, she is now likely to face charges of bribery, extortion and abuse of power stemming from her longtime connection to the daughter of a religious cult leader. The scandal has already reached the vice chairman of Samsung, South Korea’s largest conglomerate, and it has led to demands for a thorough reform of a political order that has tolerated corruption and collusive ties as an acceptable result of economic growth.

The reforms are needed, and Ms. Park had to go. And giving engagement with North Korea another go, despite the past frustrations of trying to negotiate with the North, is preferable to ratcheting up the tensions. Meanwhile, South Korean political leaders — especially Mr. Hwang and Moon Jae-in, leader of the opposition Democratic Party who is leading in opinion polls to succeed Ms. Park — have to reassure their nation that its democratic institutions are holding firm.