A few weeks ago I reported on the budding political scandal in South Korea and its background. Much has happened in the meantime, and Lotti and I visited Seoul a few weeks ago to get a firsthand picture of the situation.
Okay, admittedly that’s not quite true. We didn’t travel to Seoul as investigative journalists, but were on an intense and exhausting trip to the South Korean capital. Intense because we only had 42 hours from landing to takeoff, and exhausting because we landed at 11 PM on Friday night, took the last subway into town and met friends directly at a club and partied until seven o’clock in the morning as typical exchange students in Korea do, slept five hours and then went through our sightseeing program all day long. But I digress.
Saturday night was certainly the highlight of our excursion to Seoul. After a well-deserved Korean BBQ dinner with a Korean friend, we all walked to Gwanghwamun Square, where in the evening at half past six several hundred thousand people had already met. On our way there, we could see crowds of people pouring from every street and every corner of the city towards the city’s central and largest square. Everywhere on the streets small stalls were set up, which offered different protest posters and sold candles – some real, many with LED lights. In the beginning, the demonstrators apparently used mainly real candles until a politician derogatorily remarked, “They’re only candles, a gust of wind is enough to blow them out.” The tech-savvy Korean public did not let that statement sit for long and switched to battery-powered LED candles at the next Saturday’s demonstration so that their candles would continue to shine even in the strongest of gusts.
And this analogy can be transferred directly to the Korean demonstrators. They brave the bitterly cold winter and gather in the hundreds of thousands even at temperatures below zero to demand the resignation or the immediate impeachment of their president.
The Korean people are angry. To summarize once more: At the end of October it turns out that the daughter of a close friend of the President was able to bypass the rigorous admission procedure of the prestigious Ewha Women’s University through her mother’s relations and was therefore accepted even though she was under-qualified. Because access to (university) education in Korea has an indescribably high importance, the exposure of this dishonesty rippled through Korea like a shockwave. An investigation into the mother’s relationship, Choi Sun-sil, with President Park Geun-hye was convened, and to this day new facets of the corruption scandal are continuing to be exposed.
Koreans, above all else, are concerned with the president’s whereabouts in April 2014, when the Korean ferry Sewol sank and more than 300 people died, mainly high school students. President Park did not appear in public until seven hours after the sinking. This delay has never been explained, which is why the government is accused of incapacity in saving lives. The people of Korea have different hypotheses: evidence suggests that Park was getting plastic surgery at that time; others say that she was so dependent on her friend Choi that she had to contact her and ask for advice. Because Choi was in Germany at the time and was still asleep because of the seven-hour time difference, Park had to wait. However, these theories can not (yet) be proven.
When future historians analyze these demonstrations, I would not be surprised if, from an overall historical perspective, they contextualise them with the Monday demonstrations in Germany immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not because the Saturday demonstrations in Seoul led to the overthrow of an authoritarian regime, but because of the quality of the protests and their influence on Korean politics.
First and foremost, all twelve mass demonstrations have been extremely peaceful. Many millions of people have gathered in Gwanghwamun Square in recent months to demand the resignation and prosecution of the President. The record lies at 1.7 million people on a Saturday night, and yet not a single person has been arrested by the police during this entire time. It is very important to the demonstrators that all protests are exclusively peaceful. If a protester “misbehaves” and clashes with the police, they are immediately brought under control by the crowd. We were also told that after the demonstrations, the protestors applaud the police and thank them for their work. In the end, the policemen share the same opinion: Park must go. In fact, a survey has found that nine in ten Koreans support an immediate resignation from the president. This probably also plays a big role in why the protests are so peaceful: There is no real societal opposition.
We were impressed and moved by the atmosphere of the protests: Hundreds of thousands of people sitting on the floor at freezing temperatures with their candles and posters in their hands, or standing on the sidelines of the square. At the very front, a large stage is set up, where choirs sing and concerts are performed. On the Internet, one can register in advance if they want to announce something in front of the crowd.
On 9 December, the country cheered: Parliament had successfully launched the impeachment procedure. The President will be relieved of all her responsibilities and play no more role in politics, but will remain in office until the Supreme Court makes a final decision. The Court has 180 days to do so, during which time the Prime Minister becomes acting president. However, he is just as unpopular among the people, as he is regarded as being too close to the President. This is why the purpose of the following Saturday’s demonstrations have been realigned and now demand from the Supreme Court a quick or immediate recognition of Parliament’s decision to impeach the President and organize new elections.
Park Geun-hye, on the other hand, has refused to resign and is also awaiting the ruling of the court. If she is ultimately impeached, there will be presidential elections within 60 days. It is impressive that even after twelve weeks, virtually all Koreans are rallying behind this movement. No doubt, they have made it clear that they will not give in before Korea has a new president. Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, wants to run as a candidate. Will he will be more successful than Park? Currently on the news: Ban is said to have received $230,000 in bribes during his time as Korean Foreign Minister and appears to be featured in a promo video of the Mrs. Choi’s pseudo-Christian cult. One thing is for sure: This is going to be interesting!
Was ein toller Artikel, mein Bester! Spannend, Weltpolitik zum Anfassen und super runtergebrochen 🙂