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South Korea's parliament votes to impeach President over his martial law order

81 points by Geekette 2y ago

gamesbrainiac 2y ago
It is refreshing to the leader of a country doing something insanely untoward, and then suffering the consequences for their actions.
- sofixa 2y ago
  And especially that the politicians from his party managed to (after some time, convincing and protests, but still) overcome their affiliation and personal political interests to impeach the president.
  - janice1999 2y ago
    Some of that may be self-interest given that the President tried to imprison the heads of his own party during his attempted coup. The army deserves at least some praise for refusing to escalate the situation and ignoring orders to invade their own parliament.
  - crop_rotation 2y ago
    Sadly very few politicians from his party voted for impeachment (although more than zero). Goes to show how if only his party had 15 more members he might not be getting impeached.
  - throw4321 2y ago
    You're assuming they're not gonna go the way of Cheney and Romney. Around the world, most of this stuff is dry runs for other stuff.
- petre 2y ago
  Dunno what's wrong with this guy, I understand he's a former prosecutor who locked up presidents Lee and Park. Now he somehow repeats the same mistakes, declares martial law, sends the army to the Parliament to arrest the uncooperating opposition? And it all backfires because the National Assembly can always override the President. He'll probably end up in prison. He should have known better. What is wrong Korean politicians (both ROK and obviously DPRK) and abuse of power? At least in the ROK they have a functional democracy with at least two former convicted presidents.
  - PhasmaFelis 2y ago
    I've read that he had cronies in the military. My only guess is that he was hoping they'd back him hard enough to suppress the opposition. (Either by ignoring the vote, or by preventing them from voting in the first place--which it seems came close to happening.)
    - petre 2y ago
      It wouldn't have worked anyway. The ROK has a history of right wing patries abusing power and violent student protests clashing with riot control police. That is hard earned democracy. If he thought the people wouldn't be out in the streets backing up the Assembly, he was so wrong. They're out in the streets protesting peacefully with k-pop light sticks as we speak.
      - throw4321 2y ago
        Just for reference, in the US there were protests after protests in late 2016 and early 2017. The only difference they made is tiring out the participants.
        yongjik 2y ago
        Korea also saw almost nonstop protests since Yoon came to power - TBH I think there was always some part of Korea protesting the government, since forever. But you can't just kick out a president for being hugely unpopular - they must do something so drastically and flagrantly unconstitutional that the majority of citizens must say "Yep that's unconstitutional, we have to drag him down because our Republic is at danger." Whether you like Trump or not (I don't), Trump of 2016/2017 did not meet the threshold. (Half of America had just elected him, what would you expect?) I think Jan 6th clearly met the threshold, and Biden should have seen that Trump ends up in prison. He somehow didn't - I get that precedents are important in politics and America had never seen an ex-president in prison, so would have been very controversial - but I think it was a wrong decision and America is now paying the price.
- kergonath 2y ago
  He’s not been tried yet, though.
rejanf 2y ago
[flagged]
metalman 2y ago
[flagged]
diamondfist25 2y ago
This drama is more entertaining than the US election
- BadHumans 2y ago
  It's entertaining in that South Koreans are taking appropriate actions in response to a takeover of the country while in the US everyone is just watching like a slow motion car crash.
  - cmxch 2y ago
    I’ll take the US on this one. At least the US gives a voice and wide representation to its flyover country instead of telling it to “know its place”.
    - BadHumans 2y ago
      Instead flyover country tells the most populated areas to know their place.
  - from-nibly 2y ago
    Shoold we call the result of every election a "takeover" then? People act like this isn't democracy in action. It's not democracy when you get what you want. It's democracy when the vote turns out how it turns out. I guess this is just how it's gonna be every time though huh. Last time it was red team complaining now it's blue team.
    - BadHumans 2y ago
      It's democracy until it isn't. Hitler was fairly elected.
      - orwin 2y ago
        No. Hitler was designed by the bourgeois president Paul von Hindenburg (his party would the right wing of the US democrats) as chancellor,to 'stabilize' the country. The previous election saw the Nazi party voting share go down to 33% from 37% the previous vote, and the communist gain 3%, for a total of almost 17. The 'center' was also shocked by a transport strike, and choose to support Hitler as chancellor. The following election the Nazi did 43%, and decided it was enough to take full control. The communist and socialist constantly fighting (probably organised by the USSR) made liberals the only dam again the Nazis, and it was quite frail.
ReptileMan 2y ago
If you shoot at the king, you'd better not miss.

81 points by Geekette 2y ago

It is refreshing to the leader of a country doing something insanely untoward, and then suffering the consequences for their actions.

sofixa 2y ago
And especially that the politicians from his party managed to (after some time, convincing and protests, but still) overcome their affiliation and personal political interests to impeach the president.
- janice1999 2y ago
  Some of that may be self-interest given that the President tried to imprison the heads of his own party during his attempted coup. The army deserves at least some praise for refusing to escalate the situation and ignoring orders to invade their own parliament.
- crop_rotation 2y ago
  Sadly very few politicians from his party voted for impeachment (although more than zero). Goes to show how if only his party had 15 more members he might not be getting impeached.
- throw4321 2y ago
  You're assuming they're not gonna go the way of Cheney and Romney. Around the world, most of this stuff is dry runs for other stuff.
petre 2y ago
Dunno what's wrong with this guy, I understand he's a former prosecutor who locked up presidents Lee and Park. Now he somehow repeats the same mistakes, declares martial law, sends the army to the Parliament to arrest the uncooperating opposition? And it all backfires because the National Assembly can always override the President. He'll probably end up in prison. He should have known better. What is wrong Korean politicians (both ROK and obviously DPRK) and abuse of power? At least in the ROK they have a functional democracy with at least two former convicted presidents.
- PhasmaFelis 2y ago
  I've read that he had cronies in the military. My only guess is that he was hoping they'd back him hard enough to suppress the opposition. (Either by ignoring the vote, or by preventing them from voting in the first place--which it seems came close to happening.)
  - petre 2y ago
    It wouldn't have worked anyway. The ROK has a history of right wing patries abusing power and violent student protests clashing with riot control police. That is hard earned democracy. If he thought the people wouldn't be out in the streets backing up the Assembly, he was so wrong. They're out in the streets protesting peacefully with k-pop light sticks as we speak.
    - throw4321 2y ago
      Just for reference, in the US there were protests after protests in late 2016 and early 2017. The only difference they made is tiring out the participants.
      - yongjik 2y ago
        Korea also saw almost nonstop protests since Yoon came to power - TBH I think there was always some part of Korea protesting the government, since forever. But you can't just kick out a president for being hugely unpopular - they must do something so drastically and flagrantly unconstitutional that the majority of citizens must say "Yep that's unconstitutional, we have to drag him down because our Republic is at danger." Whether you like Trump or not (I don't), Trump of 2016/2017 did not meet the threshold. (Half of America had just elected him, what would you expect?) I think Jan 6th clearly met the threshold, and Biden should have seen that Trump ends up in prison. He somehow didn't - I get that precedents are important in politics and America had never seen an ex-president in prison, so would have been very controversial - but I think it was a wrong decision and America is now paying the price.
kergonath 2y ago
He’s not been tried yet, though.

rejanf 2y ago

[flagged]

metalman 2y ago

[flagged]

diamondfist25 2y ago

This drama is more entertaining than the US election

BadHumans 2y ago
It's entertaining in that South Koreans are taking appropriate actions in response to a takeover of the country while in the US everyone is just watching like a slow motion car crash.
- cmxch 2y ago
  I’ll take the US on this one. At least the US gives a voice and wide representation to its flyover country instead of telling it to “know its place”.
  - BadHumans 2y ago
    Instead flyover country tells the most populated areas to know their place.
- from-nibly 2y ago
  Shoold we call the result of every election a "takeover" then? People act like this isn't democracy in action. It's not democracy when you get what you want. It's democracy when the vote turns out how it turns out. I guess this is just how it's gonna be every time though huh. Last time it was red team complaining now it's blue team.
  - BadHumans 2y ago
    It's democracy until it isn't. Hitler was fairly elected.
    - orwin 2y ago
      No. Hitler was designed by the bourgeois president Paul von Hindenburg (his party would the right wing of the US democrats) as chancellor,to 'stabilize' the country. The previous election saw the Nazi party voting share go down to 33% from 37% the previous vote, and the communist gain 3%, for a total of almost 17. The 'center' was also shocked by a transport strike, and choose to support Hitler as chancellor. The following election the Nazi did 43%, and decided it was enough to take full control. The communist and socialist constantly fighting (probably organised by the USSR) made liberals the only dam again the Nazis, and it was quite frail.

ReptileMan 2y ago

If you shoot at the king, you'd better not miss.