Recovery challenges

摘要

When President Roh Moo-hyun took office in February 2003, few expected he would have an easy tenure given his peculiar political background as a former human rights lawyer. Unlike previous South Korean presidents, he swept to victory on the back of young voters wishing for drastic reforms. Fewer people, however, foresaw that he would get impeached by the opposition-led National Assembly on March 12 this year, plunging the country into a dizzying confusion. The formal charge was that he violated the Election Law by publicly supporting the pro-government Uri Party ahead of the crucial general elections on April 15 this year, which were won convincingly by the Uri Party. In South Korea, the law forbids civil servants, including the president, from electioneering. Regardless of whether the charge can be justified, observers were bewildered at scenes of chaos in the National Assembly chamber, with Uri Party members hurling furniture at the speaker's podium in protest against the bill of impeachment which had secured the required two-thirds majority.