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by strawhatguy 251 days ago
The weird thing is 13 days later his temporary successor Han was also impeached, basically because he vetoed two bills doing investigations into Yoon. IIRC, the constitutional court wasn’t fully appointed yet. And also apparently, an impeachment is a simple majority in the Assembly, and appears the DPK (the current majority party) has been impeaching everyone they disagree with. My wife, who’s from Korea, says that Lee, the now president, apparently had a “revolutionary” past, and was thrown in jail; and also one justice from the court also had a criminal record.

It’s pretty crazy over there, Lee’s probably safe right now just because his party’s the majority. But it also sounds like they’ve been abusing the impeachment process against the minority party.
1 comments
godelski 251 days ago 

  > My wife, who’s from Korea
Lol, I'm in a similar boat.

  > 13 days later his temporary successor Han was also impeached
Crazier than that![0]

  - Han Duck-soo: Acting president for 13 days. Impeached for refusing to investigate Yoon Suk Yeol and Kim Keon Hee (Yoon's wife). 
    - There were 192 votes against him and 108 members *abstained* from voting. This meant that they failed to form a quorum. *This vote was strictly party lines*
    - They ruled that they only need 50% approval because Han was the Prime Minister. *President needs 2/3rds btw*
  - Choi Sang-mok: was the acting PM for those 13 days. But only serves for 87!
  - 24 March SK's (equivalent to) supreme court overrules Han's impeachment 7-1, and Han once again becomes the acting president.
So he was impeached after 13 days for trying to bury Yoon's impeachment case, the Conservatives refuse to show up to the hearing, and months later he gets reinstated by the highest court.

  > the DPK has been impeaching everyone they disagree with.
My understanding is that there's kinda a history of this as well as pardoning. Take Park Geun-hye[2] as an example. She was the leader of the GNP (Grand National Party; SK's conservative party), and in December 2016 she was impeached (234 to 56) for influence peddling. Hwang Kyo-ahn (Prime Minister) becomes acting president. In March of 2017, their supreme court upholds the impeachment unanimously, and in May Moon Jae-in (DPK) becomes president. April 2018 Park is sentenced to 24 years in jail, and then is further prosecuted for stealing money from Korea's CIA and interfering in elections. In December 2021 Hwang pardons her and she's back home early 2022.

Before Yoon was Moon Jae-in (DPK), who the GNP tried to impeach in 2019. (Hwang Kyo-ahn was acting after Park's impeachment, who preceded Moon).

Before Park was Lee Myung-bak (GNP). He got 15 years in prison. In 2022 Yoon gave him a pardon.

Before Lee was Roh Moo-hyun (Liberal party) (Goh Kun was in between because...) but was impeached (193 to 2) in 2004 and his supporters were literally fighting people in the assembly. Month later supreme court overturned impeachment. After he left presidency people around him started getting sentenced. In 2009 he threw himself off a cliff as investigations were following him too.

Since the 60's they've had a president exiled, a coup, and even an assassination. It's fucking wild!

And don't get started on chaebols...[3]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_South_Ko...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Han_Duck-soo

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Geun-hye

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol

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