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Asia | Korea | Corruption

South Korea’s Park Geun-hye sentenced to 24 years in jail

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A South Korean court has sentenced former President Park Geun-hye to 24 years in prison after she was found guilty of corruption. The disgraced former president was found guilty of several corruption charges, abuse of power and coercion in a verdict issued on Friday. She was also fined $16m. WATCH: Warrant issued for S Korea’s ex-president on corruption charges (2:13) It was alleged in the trial that Park, 66, colluded with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, and a former presidential aide, in pressuring big businesses to donate to two foundations set up to back her policy initiatives.
Asia | Korea | Corruption

South Korea’s President Has Been Removed From Office After Court Upholds Impeachment

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South Korea's constitutional court has voted unanimously, 8-0, to uphold the impeachment of President Park Guen-hye, removing her from office after a 92-day leadership crisis and triggering a presidential election in the weeks to come. A snap election my be held within 60 days. The ruling, which was announced by the court's acting chief and televised live, made Park the nation's first democratically elected leader to be ousted. She was impeached by parliament on Dec. 9 on charges of letting a close friend meddle in state affairs, colluding with her to extort money from conglomerates, and ne
Asia | Korea | Corruption

South Korean lawmakers vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye

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South Korean lawmakers on Friday impeached President Park Geun-hye, a stunning and swift fall for the country's first female leader amid protests that drew millions into the streets in united fury. After the vote, parliamentary officials hand-delivered formal documents to the presidential Blue House that stripped Park of her power and allowed the country's No. 2 official, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, to assume leadership until the Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down. The court has up to six months to decide. Park will be formally removed from office if
Asia | Korea | Corruption

S. Korean President Faces Possible Last Day in Power

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South Korean President Park Geun-hye entered what could be her last day in power Friday, as lawmakers geared up for what's widely expected to be a successful impeachment vote amid a corruption scandal that has left her isolated and loathed. The opposition feels confident that they'll get an impeachment Friday, the last day of the current parliamentary session, because dozens of members of Park's ruling party have said they'll vote against the woman who was once their standard bearer. It's possible that the vote could be delayed or fail, but lawmakers from both parties face huge pressure
Asia | Korea | Corruption

Massive South Korean protests calling for President Park ouster continue in Seoul

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Massive protests roiled Seoul for the second consecutive weekend as hundreds of thousands of angry South Koreans took to the streets Saturday calling for President Park Geun-hye's resignation. The march, which included families with young children, students -- some in school uniforms -- and union members, came as opposition to Park mounts following her unprecedented admission that she shared classified information with someone who lacked the necessary security clearance.
Asia | Korea | Education

Women Compete Fiercely for Military Academies

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Competition among women for a place at the Korea Military Academy is the highest since female cadets were first accepted from 1998. Only one in every 49.5 applicants will make it through and start classes next year. The KMA has a 10-percent women quota for every class. There are 310 new entrants each year. Some 1,480 people have applied for the 2016 academic year. The competition ratio for men is only 19.1:1. The competition ratio for women at the Naval Academy and Air Force Academy was even higher at 60:1 and 57.1:1.
Asia | Korea | Corruption

South Korea’s first woman PM jailed for illegal funding

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South Korea’s first female prime minister was headed for jail Thursday after the Supreme Court upheld a conviction and two-year prison sentence for accepting illicit political funds. Now 71, Han Myeong-Sook served one year as prime minister from April 2006 under the administration of then-president Roh Moo-Hyun. In 2010, she was tried on charges of receiving 880 million won ($760,000) from a businessman in illegal campaign funding for her eventually unsuccessful 2007 bid to secure her party’s presidential nomination. Han was acquitted by a district court which found the businessma
Asia | Korea | Military

More Young Women Mull Military Careers

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A growing number of young women are signing up for the military, which is still overwhelmingly a male bastion, and many of them are university-educated. Women have been gradually raising the glass ceiling in business and the civil service, but an increasingly tough job market is driving more and more of them to turn to the military for experience and job security. Competition is growing more intense. At some universities like Konyang and Dankook, women have formed clubs to help each other prepare for military service. Members train for the selection process starting with physical fitness
Asia | Korea | Politics

President Park pardons business tycoon of embezzlement

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South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye on Thursday pardoned a tycoon convicted of embezzlement who heads the country’s third-largest business group. The justice ministry said in a statement that SK Group’s Chey Tae-won will be among some 6,500 people to be released from prison before the 70th anniversary Saturday of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s colonial occupation. It said the government decided on pardons for 14 business people including Chey based on their contributions to the national economy. Chey was serving a 4-year prison term that began in January 2013 after being
Asia | Korea | Activism

S. Korea’s job training program for women expands in Vietnam

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Last year, Lee Ji-hyang, a South Korean manicurist, flew to Vietnam for a new challenge. She signed up to teach women job seekers in Quang Nam, a province in Vietnam’s South Central Coast region, as part of Korea’s assistance program for developing countries. “I trained about 40 women who wished to be manicurists for about a month,” Lee told The Korea Herald. “I had an interpreter with me throughout all of the classes, but sometimes I didn’t really need to explain anything verbally because they already knew what to do. They were all very determined.” Ironically, labor po
Asia | Korea | Military

‘Flowers of the sky’: Kim Jong-un personally congratulates female fighter pilots

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North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has observed the training flight of the country's first female supersonic jet pilots, praising the women as "flowers of the sky". According to Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state news agency, Mr Kim watched Jo Kum-hyang and Rim Sol's solo take-off and landing drills "with satisfaction". It is not the first time Mr Kim has singled out Ms Jo and Ms Rim for praise. In November 2014, he commended the same pilots on completing a flying pursuit drill, noting that "it is highly praiseworthy for young girls to singly pilot a pur
Asia | Korea | Culture

In North Korea, men call the shots, women make the money

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North Korea is a militarized, male-dominated society, but it is women who are making the money as the insular nation allows an unofficial market-based economy to take shape. Women earn more than 70% of household income in North Korea, mainly as traders in the informal markets that have proliferated in recent years, research by the South Korean government-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) found. That is despite women making up only about half of the 12 million economically active North Koreans, experts say. Most men are stuck in state jobs that pay little or serve in the arm
Asia | Korea | Activism

Women activists cross on bus after denied permit to walk across Koreas’ DMZ

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International women activists including Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Peace laureates on Sunday were denied an attempt to walk across the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, but were allowed to cross by bus and complete what one of them called a landmark peace event. The group of 30 women from 15 countries made a final appeal to authorities on both sides to allow them to walk across the demarcation line, but were turned down. The North allowed a South Korean bus to cross the demarcation line to pick them up on the North side of the DMZ and transport them over the border to Sou
Asia | Korea | Activism

NKorean defectors ask women activists to be stopped at border

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North Korean defectors requested an international group of women activists that includes Gloria Steinem be stopped from crossing the DMZ after North Korea claimed two of the activists outwardly praised Kim Il Sung. An article in Thursday's Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's state newspaper, said the Women Cross DMZ delegates toured Mangyongdae, the designated birthplace of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung on Wednesday. According to North Korea, during the tour Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire said she was "highly touched" after learning about Kim Il Sung's revolutionary life. Women

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