South Korean president ousted as court upholds impeachment

SEOUL - South Korean President Park Geun-hye was ousted as the country's head of state on Friday after the constitutional court upheld a motion to impeach the scandal-ridden leader.

The court's acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi read the ruling on the impeachment, in a live nationwide broadcast, saying it was the unanimous decision of eight justices.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang refused on Friday to comment on the impeachment of Park, saying it was "the country's internal affair", but he said China hopes the political situation in the ROK remains stable.

Geng said China affirmed Park's many efforts in pushing forward the China-ROK relationship during her presidency. However, her government's decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system has affected the development of bilateral ties, and China is resolutely opposed to it, he said.

"China's open attitude toward bilateral cooperation and exchanges has not changed, but the deployment of THAAD has brought difficulties to this relationship," he said at a daily news conference in Beijing.

He said he hoped the ROK will pay attention to China's concerns, listen to the public outcry and stop the deployment process.

Meanwhile, the acting chief justice said the court had made all-out efforts for a fair judgment, hoping its decision would help lead South Korea toward reconciliation and remedy by ending division and chaos.

Lee, who is scheduled to retire on Monday, dismissed a request for retrial from Park's legal team, which demanded a judgment by the full court of nine justices. The former chief justice stepped down on Jan 31 after his term ended, leaving one vacancy, and Lee was named the acting chief justice.

She said there had been no procedural error in the decision by the eight justices.

The court dismissed a charge against Park of violating press freedom, for lack of evidence, and said Park's inaction in the 2014 ferry disaster was not subject to the impeachment judgment. The ferry disaster claimed more than 300 lives, mostly high school students on a school trip to Jeju Island.

However, the court ruled that Park allowed longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil to meddle in state affairs from the shadows by leaking many secret documents and influencing the appointment of government officials.

The ruling said Park also helped Choi seek personal gain by establishing two nonprofit foundations that were set up with donations from major conglomerates.

South Koreans who had called for Park's resignation waved national flags and cheered outside the court in downtown Seoul after hearing the impeachment ruling.

A tearful mother and daughter were among the anti-Park protesters who held placards that read "Impeachment Is Victory of Candlelight Vigil" and "No THAAD".

Park's supporters, who rallied just hundreds of meters away on the street, remained silent and burst into tears following the verdict.

Xinhua - China Daily

Zhou Xiaochuan (third from left), governor of the People's Bank of China, greets journalists on Friday at a news conference on financial reform and development during the fifth session of the 12th National People's Congress in Beijing. Feng Yongbin / China Daily