Back in March,...
Korea's Constitutional Court,... upheld the impeachment of Park Geun-hye.
Immediately ousted, she became the first ever democratically elected president to be removed
in that fashion.
Indicted and detained, the disgraced leader remains behind bars... on charges of receiving
bribes, abuse of power, and divulging state secrets.
The trials continue, Park, still very much uncooperative.
Kim Min-ji walks us through the developments thus far.
On March 10th,... the Constitutional Court upheld a parliamentary motion to impeach then-president
Park Geun-hye for her involvement in the massive corruption scandal that shook the country
-- putting an end to months of candlelight protests and starting a new chapter in the
political crisis.
It all started after reports that a close confidante of the president, Choi Soon-sil,
had access to confidential government documents as well as edited drafts of presidential speeches
-- despite having no official position within the top office or government.
The Constitutional Court said Park had broken the law by allowing Choi to meddle in state
affairs... and had breached guidelines by leaking secret state documents.
"We announce the decision as the unanimous opinion of all judges.
We dismiss the defendant, President Park Geun-hye."
Park became the first South Korean president to be thrown out of office,... and lost her
immunity from prosecution -- facing an official investigation into her role in the corruption
scandal.
She was arrested on March 31st and indicted the following month on 18 charges,... including
bribery and abuse of power.
Her trial began in May -- but on most occasions she boycotted the sessions,... and refused
to be questioned by prosecutors.
After her detention period was extended for another six months in October -- Park claimed
she was a victim of political revenge.
"Obviously, on Park's part, she will feel as though she's falsely accused.
But so does everyone else in the detention center.
But she's the former president -- she needs to show up at her trial hearings and abide
by the law.
Boycotting them isn't the action she should be taking.
It seems as though she will be given a jail sentence of between 20 and 30 years.
This scandal needs to come to a close too -- it has taken a huge social cost on the
country.
It took a year to remove her from office and elect a new government."
As for the woman at the center of it all -- Choi Soon-sil -- prosecutors are pushing for a
prison term of 25 years and a fine of some 109 million U.S. dollars,... and forfeit of
7-point-1 million dollars.
She's accused of meddling in state affairs as well as exploiting her ties to Park to
extort over 72 million dollars from local conglomerates.
That led to the detention or summoning of the country's top business leaders, including
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.
Firms in question have admitted to making payments to foundations run by Choi -- but
denied they received favors in return.
As for Samsung, prosecutors accuse Lee Jae-yong of approving payments and gifts in order to
win government support for a controversial merger of two Samsung units -- that paved
the way for him to eventually head the group.
A string of Park's former aides as well as senior figures in government ministries have
also been put behind bars.
By early next year,... it's expected that those involved in the scandal will have their
fate decided.
Although the actual verdict remains to be seen -- the general consensus is that the
court won't be too lenient given the public sentiment over the scandal.
"The candlelight protests showed who is in charge of the country and the government -- the
people.
People took to the streets wanting an end to the blacklisting of those critical of the
administration,... as well as in protest of organs of power meddling in politics.
This shows that Koreans can once again take to the streets when the government does not
reflect the needs and wants of the people,... and acts out of its own interest."
Pundits say in order to curb further abuse of power and prevent such incidents from happening
again -- the constitution must be revised to reduce the power of the commander in chief.
But for now,... the focus is the verdict for the ousted leader -- who remains tight lipped
on her allegations, only to deny them -- leaving more questions than answers.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.