March 9 (UPI) — A South Korean court took the unprecedented step of removing its country’s president from office after months of turmoil over Park Geun-hye’s impeachment scandal.
The development follows mass protests against Park’s presidency and the sprawling scandal that enveloped it after it was revealed she allowed a personal friend access to levers of government and the friend used it to solicit bribes enriching herself, the president and their associates.
Week after week, hundreds of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets in the capital Seoul and across the country to demand Park’s resignation. Despite that, the nation’s first female president and an icon of the nation’s conservative political establishment, refused to leave — even after her impeachment by the nation’s Parliament, which left her powerless in all but title.
A court upheld her impeachment on Thursday, effectively ending the power struggle by removing her from office.
A presidential election will be held to fill her term in the weeks to come, though no date has been set.
