Impeachment of Park Geun-hye
The impeachment of Park Geun-hye, President of South Korea, was the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide, Choi Soon-sil. The impeachment vote took place on 9 December 2016, with 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly voting in favour of the impeachment and temporary suspension of Park Geun-hye's presidential powers and duties. This exceeded the required two-thirds threshold in the National Assembly and, although the vote was by secret ballot, the results indicated that more than half of the 128 lawmakers in Park's party Saenuri had supported her impeachment. Thus, Hwang Kyo-ahn, then Prime Minister of South Korea, became Acting President while the Constitutional Court of Korea was due to determine whether to accept the impeachment. The court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8–0 decision on 10 March 2017, removing Park from office. The regularly scheduled presidential election was advanced to 9 May 2017, and Moon Jae-in, former leader of the Democratic Party, was elected as Park's permanent successor.
| Impeachment of Park Geun-hye | |
|---|---|
| Accused | Park Geun-hye (President of South Korea) |
| Proponents | Woo Sang-ho, Park Jie-won, Roh Hoe-chan |
| Date | 9 December 2016 – 10 March 2017 |
| Outcome |
|
| Charges | Abuse of power, coercion |
| Cause | 2016 South Korean political scandal |
| Impeachment vote by National Assembly (9 December 2016) | |
| Votes in favor | 234 / 300
|
| Votes against | 56 / 300
|
| Present | 2 |
| Not voting | 1 (7 votes invalid) |
| Result | Park impeached and suspended from the presidency for the duration of the impeachment trial; Hwang Kyo-ahn becomes acting president |
| Decision by Constitutional Court of Korea (10 March 2017) | |
| Votes in favor | 8 / 8
|
| Votes against | 0 / 8
|
| Result |
|
| National Assembly: 2004092 Constitutional Court: 2016헌나1 | |
Park was formally sentenced to 24 years in prison on 6 April 2018 after being found guilty of abuse of power and coercion. This was later raised to 25 years and a fine of ₩20 billion (US$17.86 million) following an appeal by prosecutors. President Moon would go on to pardon Park Geun-hye on compassionate grounds in December 2021. She was ultimately released and later returned home in March 2022.