Geun-Hye is part of the more conservative main party of South Korea, and with her scandal the next president is likely going to be much more liberal, especially if she's impeached. Currently South Korea has gay marriage illegal, abortion illegal (except in rare cases), and labels being transgender as a "mental illness", which I think are probably issues the next president will face, and likely change, as a liberal president, with most of the world legalizing and normalizing all of those. What do you guys think?
Saturday, December 3, 2016
First Female President Of South Korea Likely Will Not Serve Full Term
After president Park Geun-Hye's scandal, her three opposing parties, the NPAD, UPP, and Justice Party, are calling for impeachment. They are decidedly voting on December 9th to impeach the president. Geun-Hye's own party, the Saenuri Party, hopes that she will resign on her own in April—which she has said she is willing to do. The other parties said they will not vote for impeachment if she officially announces that she will step down and the date that that will happen by Wednesday, but now some are claiming that Geun-Hye's statement that she is willing to step down is just a ploy to buy time for her party to recover. Park Geun-Hye's approval rating is currently at four percent. The next president of South Korea will be elected in December 2017 and inaugurated in February 2018.
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Four percent approval is so low that I don't think any President in the US has ever faced that--not even Andrew Johnson or Richard Nixon. That's just stunning, honestly. I think her party is going to have a hard time recovering, but if she can step down peacefully instead of being impeached, it should help some. I'm not sure about the liberal/conservative issues because so much of that depends on the culture there. How ingrained in the culture are the laws about gay marriage and abortion? It often takes a while for those things to change.
ReplyDeleteCulture in Korea is based a lot on tradition, so that very well may be the case. One reason I think legalized abortion in South Korea may be at hand is because of the countries surrounding it that have similar cultures. In China abortion is legal for all, and the government will even provide it unless the reason is because of the baby's gender. In Japan abortion laws are a little stricter but still will allow it for reasons such as poverty. As far as gay marriage goes, I just know that there are a lot of liberal Korean celebrities calling for its legalization. Surrounding countries China/Japan have not legalized it, though many people do have gay weddings that are not legally recognized. Taiwan just turned down a bill for same-sex marriage, but it did get to be seriously considered. I don't know that it would be in the next president's term, but I could see it progressing.
DeleteThe question of legalizing gay marriage is also rapidly getting more and more approval in polls from Korean citizens, although a slight majority still have negative feelings about it, so that's a big reason to believe it could change. Sorry I forgot to include this in my other comment. :)
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