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By Justin McCurry
Park Geun-hye has become the first democratically elected South Korean president to be forced from office, after the country’s constitutional court upheld a parliamentary vote to impeach her over a corruption and cronyism scandal that could see her face criminal charges.
Friday’s dramatic judgement brings an abrupt and ignominious end to Park’s four years in office – the most dramatic development yet in a scandal that has gripped and horrified South Koreans in equal measure. Two died in protests after the ruling.
Park will immediately forfeit the executive immunity she enjoyed as president, meaning prosecutors can summon, question and possibly arrest her.
South Korea has 60 days to elect a new leader after the court’s eight justices unanimously supported the impeachment motion, passed overwhelmingly in December by the national assembly, which accused Park of extortion, bribery, abuse of power and leaking government secrets.
The election, likely to be on 9 May, could see a liberal installed after almost a decade of conservative rule and at a time of increasing tension on the Korean peninsula and in the wider Asia-Pacific region. South Korea’s relations with China, the US and North Korea are expected to feature prominently in the campaign.
Opinion polls show that that Moon Jae-in, a former MP from the opposition Democratic party of Korea who lost the 2012 election to Park, is the favourite to succeed her. Moon has called for talks with North Korea in contrast to Park’s hard line against Pyongyang, and has vowed to “reconsider” Park’s plans to deploy a US missile defence system, amid objections from Beijing.
China’s official Xinhua news agency wasted no time in responding to Park’s impeachment and accused her of dealing “a massive blow to [South Korea’s] relationship with Beijing” by agreeing to host the Thaad missile system. It said the deployment was “very likely to usher in an ice age” for economic ties between China and South Korea, and urged Park’s successor to rethink.
North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Park “had one more year left as ‘president’ but, now she’s been ousted, she will be investigated as a common criminal”.
The ruling against Park was delivered live on television on Friday morning amid tight security in the streets outside the constitutional court in Seoul.
While many in the crowd celebrated, thousands of Park’s supporters reacted angrily, striking police officers with flag poles and climbing on to buses that were being used to form a cordon around the court.
“This is a victory of democracy,” said 27-year-old Ahn Yo-Wool.
Lim Na-kyung, a student, said: “The impeachment of the president is a day that will go down in history. My heart is full of emotion and I am very happy.”
South Korean media reported that two people died during scuffles between pro- and anti-Park protesters. A man in his 70s, believed to be a Park supporter, reportedly died from head injuries after falling from a police bus. Another man is believed to have died after hospital staff administered CPR.
The chief justice, Lee Jung-Mi, started reading the verdict shortly after 11am. The president’s actions had “seriously impaired the spirit of … democracy and the rule of law”, she said. “President Park Geun-Hye … has been dismissed. Her actions betrayed the people’s confidence. They are a grave violation of law, which cannot be tolerated.”
The acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, who took charge in December after Park’s powers were frozen, called on his administration to close the deep divisions the scandal had created among South Koreans.
“I respect the constitutional court’s decision … The cabinet should carry out state affairs in a stable way and manage social order to prevent internal conflict from intensifying,” he told a cabinet meeting.
Park is the most unpopular South Korean leader since the country became a democracy in the late 1980s. The scandal ensnared senior government officials and business figures, including Lee Jae-yong, the acting head of Samsung, who denied bribery, corruption and other charges at the first hearing in his trial on Thursday.
But for South Koreans who reacted to the scandal last summer by protesting in their millions every weekend, Park, the daughter of a former South Korean dictator, was always the prize target.
Her impeachment came after months of deeply damaging revelations about her relationship with Choi Soon-sil, a longtime friend with whom she is suspected of conspiring to secure donations worth tens of millions of dollars from major companies for foundations set up by Choi.
She is also accused of allowing Choi to secretly interfere in state affairs, including economic policy and Seoul’s relations with North Korea.
Samsung donated 43bn won (£30m) – more than any other firm – to the foundations and allegedly gave millions of euros to Choi to fund her daughter’s equestrian training in Germany. The firm has strongly denied allegations that it expected political favours from Park in return.
Choi is in detention, accused of using her close ties with Park to force local firms to “donate” nearly $70m (£60m) to the non-profit foundations, which Choi allegedly used for personal gain.
Park and Choi have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
On Friday, the court found Park had broken the law by allowing Choi to interfere in state affairs, and had breached rules on public servants’ activities.
“Park concealed completely Choi’s meddling in state affairs and denied it whenever suspicions over the act emerged and even criticised those who raised the suspicions,” Lee said.
Park, whose family background and knack for winning elections propelled her to the Blue House on a wave of public support in late 2012, will leave office almost a year shy of the end of her five-year term.
Choi’s father, the religious cult leader Choi Tae-min, mentored Park after her mother, Yuk Young-soo, was assassinated by a North Korean sympathiser in 1974, forcing the 22-year-old Park to take on the role of acting first lady. Her father, Park Chung-hee, was killed by his own chief of security five years later.
Public anger is now expected to focus again on the political influence – and extraordinary wealth – enjoyed by the the most powerful figures in South Korea’s family-run conglomerates, or chaebol.
There are growing demands for legal action to be taken against tycoons from other South Korean companies caught up in the scandal, including Hyundai and Lotte.
Park is not the first South Korean leader to have been impeached by the national assembly. The liberal president, Roh Moo-hyun, was impeached in 2004, but was reinstated two months later after the constitutional court said allegations of minor election law violations and incompetence did not justify his removal.
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