No Impeachment of President Park for Now; She Could Resign in April

It is looking like President Park Geun-hye will resign as the South Korean President in late April which means elections are supposed happen 60 days after that.  That makes late June 2017 as the timeframe for the next ROK Presidential election:

A rift emerged in the opposition alliance to impeach President Park Geun-hye this week as last-minute talks among the leaders of three liberal parties broke down Thursday, while ruling party lawmakers united to promote an “orderly” resignation of the president in April.

Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, Rep. Park Jie-won, acting head of the People’s Party and Chairwoman Sim Sang-jeong of the Justice Party held a meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss a specific timeline for an impeachment motion in the National Assembly. Citing an agreement from the previous day, Choo and Sim said the motion must be submitted on Thursday to allow a vote today. Park disagreed. He said he opposed a vote that was guaranteed to fail.

The embattled president issued a public statement Tuesday saying she was willing to cut her term short. She asked the National Assembly to decide the fate of her presidency in response to a public clamor for her resignation over a still snowballing abuse of power scandal.

Her proposal was considered an alternative to impeachment. Since Tuesday, members of her own party who were supporting impeachment have swung to the idea of another kind of resignation, which has been code-named the “orderly” departure scenario.

Park won a five-year presidential term in the 2012 election and her tenure is scheduled to end in late February 2018. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

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