The Constitutional Court has yet to decide whether or not to permanently remove president Park Geun-hye from office, and they may not do so for another 6 months, but seeing the likelihood of Geun-hye's removal has caused many South Korean politicians to start appealing to the people. If the Constitutional Court decides to throw out president Park, they will hold their election within 60 days of their decision. If not, South Korea's next presidential election will be taking place in just around a year anyway.
The most popular candidate right now is a liberal named Moon Jae-in. He was Park Geun-hye's main contender in their latest presidential election. Some statements he's made imply the cancellation of some of the ROK and United States' military plans, namely deploying THAAD, in trade for better relations with China and Russia. My understanding of THAAD is that it detects and shoots down any missiles within a good distance. Many diplomats and politicians think if the US and South Korea went through with THAAD, the China-ROK relationship would go downhill. Personally I can definitely see where he's coming from. North Korea hasn't actually done any harm nuclear-wise and South Korea doesn't really want to be on worse terms with China right now. Of course, though, the reason China and Russia don't want South Korea to deploy THAAD is because they're worried that then the United States can also track some Chinese missiles. I definitely think they should go through with it. Even though South Korea needs to maintain peace with China, the people of South Korea should be their government's top priority, and if they could detect missiles before they hit, it could save the lives of many.
The conservatives realize this is going to be a hard battle for them to win, and most of them are putting their hope in outgoing UN general secretary, Ban Ki-moon, as they believe he is the most likely to be able to win.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/south-korean-presidential-contender-seoul-44206244
I am so impressed with your understanding of the political atmosphere in both Koreas. It will be interesting to see what happens with this.
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