HFS!!! Roh is impeached!

The General Assembly has voted to impeach President Roh from office. Here is a brief statement from Yonhap News (NOTE: link updated to a fuller report but I'm keeping the simple quote below.]

SEOUL, March 12 (Yonhap) -- The National Assembly passed South Korea's first-ever presidential impeachment motion on Friday, suspending President Roh Moo-hyun from office.

Prime Minister Goh Kun will take over until the Constitutional Court approves or rejects it within six months.

The vote happened a few minutes ago. I don't know the count.

Alas, I have afternoon classes. Check out the news service or other Korean bloggers for more information.

UPDATE: The vote was 193-2. I assume that OOP (the party that backs Roh) members either refused to vote or were detained because of their seizing of the Speaker's podium.

LAST UPDATE before class: Here is a pic from Yonhap showing opposition law makers dragging Roh supporters from the podium so they could vote:

OK, I'm between classes right now. Time for a quick comment.

Anyone who has read my blog more than a little knows that I think Roh's administration has been a disaster almost from the beginning. But it was a democratically elected disaster and I think the opposition parties have made a huge mistake in Impeaching him. I can see nothing he has done that would warrant impeachment; censure yes, but not impeachment. This will come back to haunt the MDP and GNP and the Korean people.

Also, this is political crisis but not a constitutional crisis as long as all the parties stick to the rules. I expect that Roh will be returned to office within a few weeks, maybe even before the spring elections.

I also fear what damage this will do to Korea's developing democratic political culture. I worry that this vote could cause an upsurge in popular support for Roh and may even lead to the kind of rampant populism and political fighting that we see going on in Venezuela these days.

Comments

[Polymath]

Just saw it on TV here (yobo translated).

Thank GOD! Though, my wife is really worried about leaving her family behind in Korea now. She is worried that things over here are just going to get steadily more f*cked up.

I have hope things will start to get better now.

[The Yangban]

Hi Polymath,

I have to disagree with you on this one. Things were pretty bad between Roh and the NA but the trains were still running and kids were still going to school. Korea could have survived the Roh administraition as long as there was a viable opposition to keep him in check.

This move raised the stakes and we could now see all kinds of mess depending on how the two sides play this out over the next few weeks before the election.

[sugar shin]

I´ve seen the tumultous scenes in the National Assembly delivered by YTN on German newschannels and CNN/ BBC. I´m against this impeachment freak show. To be honest, no domestic Korean politician can survive the shark pool of hundreds of little princes and macchiavellis without "dirt" on the white vests and the hands. I´m worried and affraid about the future course of the ROK. Until the everyday "envelope gifts" bribery in the Korean society as a whole exists, nothing would change at the top political and economical elite. What a disgrace before the eyes of the world... the ROK National Assembly Wrestling Federation is really becoming a bittersweet joke.

[Polymathq]

Yangban-

I understand your position, but I will respectfully disagree.

Without Roh, the trains will still run and kids will still goto school.

The elected reps have spoken, legally, despite the opposition's attempt to physically block them from doing so.

Roh has done so much damage to this nation and I BELIEVE Korea is better off with chaos without Roh then chaos with Roh.

Either way- its more or less speculation what will happen.