美国国家公共电台 NPR What's Next For South Korea After Ousting Its President

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

There are celebrations in the streets of Seoul the day after the decision to remove South Korea's president, Park Geun-hye, from office over a corruption¹ scandal.

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UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in Korean).

SIMON: Celebration among millions, but the high court ruling which upheld an impeachment² by lawmakers sparked violent protest from some Park supporters, and at least three people died during demonstrations³. NPR's Elise Hu is with us in Seoul. Elise, thanks for being with us.

ELISE HU, BYLINE⁴: Happy to be here.

SIMON: Now, we know Park supporters had threatened violence if she was removed. That seems to have happened. What's the situation in Seoul today?

HU: Well, as we just heard, there's more demonstrations happening in the city center. They've drawn⁵ out tens of thousands of people, but this time, Scott, it's Koreans really celebrating the president's ouster. Public opinion polls before the court verdict showed as many as 80 percent of South Koreans supported the removal of the president for her involvement in alleged⁶ bribery⁷ schemes and influence peddling⁸. So it's really a minority of voices who didn't take the decision very well.

SIMON: There's an acting⁹ president in charge, but what about after that?

HU: Well, the country is going to hold a snap election, and by law, it's required to happen within 60 days. So we'll see a compressed contest for the leadership of South Korea. And after nearly a decade of conservatives in charge here, it's really going to be an election that liberals are expected to win. One of the biggest differences between conservatives and liberals here is how they approach North Korea.

SIMON: Which, of course, this week, fired four missiles to the sea near Japan, which is further evidence that it has a growing missile program. How would new leadership in Korea affect the power balance in the region, not just with North Korea, but China?

HU: Well, liberals here in South Korea are more interested in engagement with the North, interested in drawing them out. That's really a fundamental difference than what the conservatives have been doing, which has been freezing North Korea out as punishment for this growing missile program. There's also uncertainty¹⁰ in the region overall because relations with Japan aren't that great right now over history issues. Relations with China are tense because Korea is installing a U.S. missile defense¹¹ system. And, of course, there's unease about where Asia stands with Washington because of the new Trump¹² administration. And so a new Korean administration could potentially shift policy to be more China friendly, which would then, you know, affect a longstanding alliance between Korea and the U.S.

SIMON: And finally, Elise, we understand that President Park has been voted out of office, but she's still in her office.

HU: (Laughter) That's right. She lost her power immediately after the court upheld the impeachment on Friday, but she's still holed up in the presidential palace, even though she's just a regular Joe citizen now. President Park hasn't made a statement to accept the ruling or even explain why she's not leaving. We reached out to a spokesman today for a timeline on when Park might actually move out of taxpayer-funded housing. And he said he didn't know.

SIMON: Elise Hu in Seoul, thanks so much.

HU: You bet.