Last week, the constitutional court of South Korea ruled that the impeachment of Park Geun-Hye would be upheld. As such, she is officially no longer South Korea’s president. This makes it the first time in South Korea’s history that a democratically elected President was removed from office.
The move followed a decision made by the South Korean parliament to have her impeached in December last year. The vote was an overwhelming 234-56 for the president’s impeachment. Once such a decision has been made by Parliament, the constitutional court then looks into the issue and gives its final verdict. As a result of the Constitutional Court’s decision on Park’s impeachment, the country is scheduled to have a snap election in 60 days. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn has been serving as interim President since December and will continue to execute this function until the elections are held.
Unlike many scandals that cause the impeachment or resignation of politicians, Park’s did not include corruption or marital infidelity. Instead, her impeachment stemmed from her relationship with a previously little-known female from what some people perceive to be a religious cult. The female had extensive influence over Park’s decisions and was able to obtain classified information without the necessary clearance.
60-year-old Choi Soon-Sil is the daughter of the founder of a Christianity sect called The Church of Eternal Life. This group has, for a long time been alleged to have cult affiliations. However, Choi has been Park’s friend for a very long time. She has currently been indicted on charges that included her exerting her influence over the President for financial gain. This included having large companies in South Korea make $70 million in donations to some of her nonprofit organization. Afterward, prosecutors alleged that Choi used some of this money for her personal gain.
Results from investigations as well as the president’s admission showed just how much Choi’s influence was over the President. Choi frequently communicated with the president’s staff, gave her opinion on top political appointments to be made and received presidential briefings. Further, she was allowed to make changes to some of Park’s major policy speeches and went as far as choosing what the president wore on what day.
The two women met through Choi’s father, Choi Tae-min, in the mid-1970’s. The man had, at the time, established the Church of Eternal Life, declared himself a pastor and claimed he had the gift to heal people. Choi Tae-min capitalized on Park’s emotional instability at the time to gain the former president’s trust at the time. The instability was as a result of Park’s mother’s assassination in 1974. The killing had been in a bid to assassinate Park’s father. However, it had failed and taken her mother’s life instead. Park was only 23 at the time, and that was when the elder Choi began communication with her. He wrote her letters claiming Park’s dead mother had visited him in dreams and that through him, the two could communicate. Ignorantly, Park took the bait. After this occurrence, the elder Choi ended up as a trusted spiritual guide to the former president’s daughter.
As Park continued with her life, she became increasingly dependent on the elder Choi. This was especially so when her father died in 1979. The emotional effects she underwent as a result of being an orphan caused her to become entirely in need of the elder Choi’s guidance. She assisted him in running the various foundations he had established during the reign of Park’s father.
Choi Tae-min died in 1994. However, this did not stop the Choi family from asserting its influence over the now emotionally and spiritually dependent Park. The younger Choi then took over her father’s role, becoming Park’s trusted guide on spiritual matters as well as her confidante. Park had never been married, and in her apparent loneliness, she leaned heavier and heavier on younger Choi’s guidance and friendship. In one of her recent public apologies, former president Park explains, “Living on my own, I had no one to help me with the many private affairs that needed taking care of, so I turned to Choi Soon-sil, whom I have known a long time, for help.” She explains that the prime reason for her actions was loneliness.
Clearly, mistakes have been made in the South Korean government. However, despite these errors being personal, they could create strict barriers between the diplomatic relations between the United States and South Korea. Currently, protection is ongoing. However, President Trump has spoken about abandoning the country’s long-term commitment to having South Korea under its wing. The impeachment, as well as nuclear tests from North Korea, have resulted in South Korea being in a very precarious position where it could lose its military support from the United States, face attack and have no leader to unite under so as to defend itself. As such, a political scandal as bad as this is the very last thing that South Korea would want to be experiencing.
However, the impeachment was rather cut and dry. It was quite clear that through it the President already faced high numbers of opposition even in her party within parliament. Additionally, the hardships that Park encountered in her role as South Korea’s first female president are innumerable. Only recently, she faced additional shaming for leaving her nine pets in the Blue House, South Korea’s Presidential residence.
The struggles for women to have an equal standing on political grounds with their male counterparts has been a long battle. In Australia, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has explained the additional political struggles she had as a woman. In a speech she gave, she gave the example of bearing children as one of the fronts that women in politics were struggling with. Having them and being in politics caused the society to wonder who was taking care of them while not bearing any children caused her to suffer insults as well as questions about her fertility. Further, Julia received comments shaming her body that went as far as even appearing on the menu of a conservative fundraising dinner she attended.
Additionally, Julia has also recalled that she too felt “loneliness” as a result of being the sole woman at various boardroom meetings, how some male journalists refused to address her as “Prime Minister” and even unfair comparisons on her outfit choices. Despite these issues, she expected that she would “tough it out” in coming years, citing the struggles were as a result of her being the first female in Australia to occupy the seat. However, she was not able to keep her cool for long. In her world-famous misogyny speech, she lashed out on her rival Tony Abbott for being a misogynist, citing sentiments that she hoped he resigned as a result of his gender-biased traits.
Perhaps Park’s personality is different. Perhaps she is not a fighter and unlike Julia, chose to keep her struggles with the loneliness of being one of the few females in South Korean politics to herself, instead leaning on a friend who had helped her in past struggles such as the death of her parents. Despite her making imminently wrong choices, her emotional stability over time could have been investigated along with the proceedings of her impeachment. Currently, she faces these challenges alone yet again. All the same, women are still facing various hardships on equality in some sectors; the political arena is one of them.
