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BY JED DEL ROSARIO
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A FEW DAYS ago, South Korean President Park GeunHye was impeached by her country’s National Assembly.
The impeachment was the climax to a relatively long controversy that centered around Park’s involvement with alleged cultists who extorted money from some of South Korea’s most prominent Chaebols business conglomerates.
As interesting as the political drama may be, though, the real pressing issue here is that President Park’s fall from power raises concerns over South Korea as well as the Korean peninsula in general.
Park’s impeachment revealed a few cracks in South Korea’s image as a strong and prosperous country free of corruption, and such revelations can have serious implications for the rest of Asia.
A closer look on South Korea reveals that it has its fair share of problems. Although the country is certainly rich and prosperous, it also has a household debt problem, a demographic problem as well as a problem with stagnating growth. And, of course, let us not forget their cousins up north.
When you add corruption scandals and alleged cult leaders to this list of problems, it becomes easy to see why South Korea is not looking too rosy right now.
A politically unstable, economically stagnant South Korea has several, important implications. First of all, it could alter the country’s relationship with North Korea, possibly destabilizing the delicate balance between the two states, thus creating more instability in the region. Park’s debacle may even embolden certain elements in the North, and encourage Kim Jong Un to start saber rattling again. Should this happen, tensions in the Korean peninsula will not be good for regional stability.
Second, there is the geopolitical balance of power. A politically unstable South Korea is not good for American influence in the region. Should American power diminish (due to a weakened ally), other Asian nations could see South Korea’s precarious situation as a prelude to their own problems, and may either take steps to realign themselves with China (such as Malaysia’s Najib Razak for example) or start arming themselves more extensively.
Finally, it is also possible that the ongoing South Korean political turmoil offers opportunities for China to develop stronger South Korean-Chinese ties. How such ties will affect North Korea (or the US) will be interesting to see, particularly if the Trump administration pursues a more isolationist policy in the years to come.
Having said all that, it’s worth adding that it is still too early to examine the long term implications of President Park’s impeachment or its fallout on the rest of the region. We can, however, draw an interesting lesson about President Park’s impeachment: Don’t mistake wealth and tranquility for stability./PN
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