South Korea Impeaches Second President in Two Weeks

South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach President Han Duck-soo just two weeks after impeaching President Yoon Suk Yeol, the bbc reported on December 27.

President Yoon was impeached on December 14 after briefly imposing martial law on December 3. Prime Minister Han took his place, and has now been impeached as swiftly as he arrived. Opposition members of parliament argued that Han was refusing demands needed to complete President Yoon’s impeachment.

Conflict: Three justice positions need to be filled in the Constitutional Court. It’s nine-member court currently has only six standing members.

The opposition wanted these appointments put through immediately, but Han refused to formally appoint them without a “bipartisan agreement.” He soon faced accusations of insurrection, and parliament subsequently voted to impeach him.

This is the first time an interim president has been impeached in South Korea’s history.

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok will take Han’s place, marking the third president the country has had in a month.

Democracy’s collapse: South Korea’s current political unrest has shown no signs of letting up. The country’s hard-fought democracy is sitting on the razor’s edge of total collapse, and the value of the nation’s currency is plummeting to its lowest level in 16 years.

These events are a troubling sign of a larger global trend: Democracies across the world are growing less stable as geopolitical tensions rise. This instability did not start with South Korea, and it will not stop there.

To learn about the only true solution to this problem, read “Democracy Is Dying.”