South Korea’s National Assembly voted by a huge margin Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye over her role in a corruption and influence-peddling scandal, forcing her to immediately hand over the running of the country to a caretaker prime minister.
But despite the clear condemnation from both politicians and the general public, Park signaled that she would not be standing down but would wait with a “calm and clear mind” while the conservative-leaning Constitutional Court decided whether or not to uphold the impeachment motion.
That means that South Korea could be in for a long period of paralysis. The court now has six months to rule, creating a power vacuum in South Korea at the same time as the United States goes through its own presidential transition.
A total of 234 lawmakers voted in favor of the impeachment motion Friday, well beyond the two-thirds majority, or 200 votes, that proponents of impeachment needed to oust the president. That meant dozens of lawmakers from Park’s conservative Saenuri party crossed the aisle to vote with the 171 opposition and independent lawmakers pushing for impeachment.