South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has become the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.<\/p>\n
Judges unanimously upheld parliament’s decision to impeach Ms Park over her role in a corruption scandal involving her close friend, Choi Soon-sil.<\/p>\n
She now loses her presidential immunity and could face criminal charges.<\/p>\n
There have been angry scenes outside the court. Police said two protesters had died.<\/p>\n
The court ruling is the culmination of months of political turmoil and public protest. An election must now be held within 60 days.<\/p>\n
Ms Park’s office said she would not be leaving the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential palace, on Friday nor making any statement.<\/p>\n
Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn has called for calm, saying the government should remain stable to prevent internal conflict from spreading.<\/p>\n
Why did Park lose her job?<\/strong><\/p>\n At the heart of the drama lies the close friendship between the president and Ms Choi.<\/p>\n Ms Choi is accused of using her presidential connections to pressure companies to give millions of dollars in donations to non-profit foundations she controlled.<\/p>\n Ms Park is alleged to have been personally involved in this, and to have given Ms Choi unacceptable levels of access to official documents.<\/p>\n Parliament voted to impeach Ms Park in December and the Constitutional Court has since been deciding whether to uphold or overturn this.<\/p>\n On Friday, a panel of eight judges ruled Ms Park’s actions “seriously impaired the spirit of… democracy and the rule of law”.<\/p>\n The court said she had broken the law by allowing Ms Choi to meddle in state affairs, and had breached guidelines on official secrets by leaking numerous documents.<\/p>\n Ms Park had “concealed completely Choi’s meddling in state affairs and denied it whenever suspicions over the act emerged and even criticised those who raised the suspicions,” it said.<\/p>\n But the judges dismissed some charges, including accusations Ms Park had infringed on freedom of the press by creating a media blacklist of cultural figures, and criticism of her response during the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye has become the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office. Judges unanimously upheld parliament’s decision to impeach Ms Park over her role in a corruption scandal involving her close friend, Choi Soon-sil. She now loses her presidential immunity and could face criminal charges. There have been angry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n