[Editorial] Ahead of fateful week, Pres. Park’s only real option is to step down

Posted on : 2016-11-28 15:59 KST Modified on : 2016-11-28 15:59 KST
One demonstration holds an image of President Park Geun-hye under arrest
One demonstration holds an image of President Park Geun-hye under arrest

President Park Geun-hye must have heard them clearly with her own ears: the chants of the demonstrators crowding around the Blue House on the night of Nov. 26 and calling for her resignation. With 1.9 million candles burning around the country despite the inclement weather, amid the rain and snow, the fifth round of candlelight demonstrations broke another record for the number of protestors on the streets.

The demonstrators were not content to call for Park’s resignation. In contrast with previous protests, demonstrators freely called for her arrest. The South Korean people are enraged to see Park, who is now a suspect in criminal investigation, refusing to cooperate with the prosecutors’ investigation and deriding the prosecutors’ interim findings as “a house of cards.”

The criminal charges against the “suspect-in-chief” are piling up higher with each passing day. When the special investigations headquarters at the prosecutors indicted Cha Eun-taek for abusing his authority on Nov. 27, they listed Park once again as an accomplice. Cha had enjoyed various privileges while indulging in his status as the “crown prince of the cultural world.” Not only did Park have one of Cha’s friends hired as an executive at KT and help land advertisements, but she was reportedly also implicated in an extortion scheme involving an advertising firm known as Poreka.

We have also learned that Park periodically gave former Blue House Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs Ahn Jong-beom detailed instructions about putting Cha’s associates in charge of advertisements and keeping Poreka from being bought up by a chaebol. There can be no doubt that these are mean and shameful criminal activities for the head of a state to have done, and they show that Park does not have the slightest shred of decency.

The prosecutors have given Park until Nov. 29 to appear in person for questioning. Her status has changed from that of a witness to a suspect in their criminal investigation. No excuse or pleading can justify her attempts to avoid the prosecutors’ investigation. If the suspect keeps refusing to cooperate with the investigation, it’s only reasonable for the authorities to force her to do so. In a democracy, all citizens are equal before the law, no matter how great or humble their rank or status. The prosecutors must not waver in their stern execution of the law.

This week will be a fateful one for Park. The National Assembly will be launching a committee to file the motion of impeachment, nominating a candidate for the special prosecutor for the Choi Sun-sil scandal and initiating a parliamentary investigation into the influence-peddling by Park’s unofficial aides all at the same time. Battered by these troubling developments, the Blue House is reportedly considering the idea of having Park make a third statement to the public. But it is inconceivable that anything Park says can move the hearts of the people when she is just waiting for a chance to strike back while refusing to even cooperate with the prosecutors’ investigation. It is now pointless for Park to say anything unless she is announcing her resignation.

At the moment, Park has basically buried her head in the sand like an ostrich. That does not change the predicament in which she finds herself, nor does it erase the crimes that she has committed. It is already too late to win any sympathy from the public. The only choice that remains to her is to step down at once from her position as president. That is the way for Park to partially appease a public that is clamoring for her arrest.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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