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tv   Inside Story  Al Jazeera  December 28, 2024 11:30pm-12:00am AST

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the the . ringback the deepening political crisis in south korea to president's impeach within 2 weeks with the stand and replacement immediately under pressure, the instabilities create some serious concern internationally. so what's gone wrong and what's next? this is inside story, the hello again on james bay's south korea is in the political to him while one of the world's newest. but most robust democracy is roxanne ways not seen since military dictatorship ended in the 1980s. 2 presidents ousted in december with the acting
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replacement and the pressure of the appointment of judges who decide the fate of the other 2. yes, it's a complicated story, but with straightforward implications. trouble in a key ally couldn't come to was time for the west. this tension, so with neighboring north korea, china and russia, chaos and when the world's biggest economy is in tech, producers has sent investors fling the currency tumbling, just as donald trump looks around the corner threatening terrace. so is this just the domestic political route that will eventually blow over or is a t u s l i significantly weakened and an area of vital importance. we'll discuss a little this with all the guests and just a moment. but 1st, this report from victoria, i can be the south. korea's constitutional crisis has deepened opposition. policies and the national assembly voted to impeach acting . president handout suit he replaced president use. so you'll just 2 weeks ago,
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after you was impeached for imposing martial or the start of december, the full parliament over turned it within a day. at least 6 judges on the constitutional cool most to uphold unions impeachment to remove him from office. it currently only has 6, which means they need to deliver a unanimous ruling district view, and if the presidency has refused to appoint 3 more judges to the court unless this course party agreement. so the main o position, democratic party that controls the chambers suspended him to the relief of support is no good because we don't know when there will be a 2nd marshal declaration. and we just want this instability to and how did the rebellion hewn must step down and be arrested immediately. so we can all sure we know you administration but those who support unit 10 say a 2nd and peach mentioned as many weeks plunges the country into motels. this
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demonstrates the democratic party to legislative tyranny. i oppose this legal impeachment. it's the opposition's way of saying stop working and just comply with our demands. it's on just finance minister choice on more because we're placed hand is acting president. he says, political uncertainty is threatening south korea's national security. the immediate attention to this is not what we have been worried about has become a reality. it's an unprecedented emergency situation and the constitutions history . i urge you to maintain a defensive posture against the north korean publications and propaganda to south korea is ages falls largest economy on friday. it's currency plunge to levels not seen since the 2007 global financial crisis. the constitutional quote has up to 6 months to decide whether to reinstate or remove you. hun says it will say wait for a ruling from the cold. with politics becoming more polarized, south korea's democracy is being put to the test. and it's likely to face many more
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months of instability. victoria gave some b. l, g 0 of the inside story. well, let's bring in all experts to discuss old list today, and we're joining today by young chick bong research fellow at the own state university institute of north korean studies in sol from boston. g rebound is as an actor and fellow in public policy at the harvard kennedy school and also from soul in bottom shown. is there a todd, south korean army, lieutenant general, thank you, all of you for joining us. if i can start with you, general john. so it period of marshal went from the, the some of the 3rd, some of the full for just 6 hours. yes, it seems the crisis is fall from of it. yes. so the military involvement portion ended within 6 hours. unfortunately,
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the political after mass still continues and i think your reports put in a pretty good summary of. ready we are right now. the next question is when the actual impeachment process involving president, you will start and how the composition of the constitutional courts will be formed. whether we will have 3 new judges or not. so those are the main issues, the citizen i'm very disappointed that this whole political situation that we have is not being resolved politically. general children. just staying with that period of martial law before we move on. yes, it was only 6 as but as a full, not military man and a very senior military man. what did you make of those scenes? which was very startling to me because the reason that korea
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has a system that which involves martial law is because of the serious uh, trust that we have from north korea. if there is a north korean involved contingency, we must maintain law in order in a very chaotic situation. that is why we have a system called martial law which ensures or limits a constitutional human rights. thereby maintaining law in order which will support mobilization, which in turn will support the operational plan to defend korea. in this case, none of that seem to be present for the calling of martial law. and yet it happened . so it was quite startling that on the other hand, the soldiers were ordered to conduct these these actions
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knew that something was not right. and they hesitated, which gave time for the constitutional process to conclude and dismiss the martial law, and that at the, at the present level, staying installed. you'll check um this was at the beginning of the month that some weeks of now paused. do we now have any indication what the real motives were of president you? why did he do this? what was he thinking? is it any clear now to well, according to his lawyer. so state must present you as on the other phone, he had a very mild, as best speak pauper's behind his decision to be cleared to martial law for the 1st time since 1979. so it has been 45 years since clear answer to this actually experience being called the martian of law. according to his lawyers explanation,
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he only wanted to give us the warning to the office on part is that impeached? try to impeach the the cabinet members awful wrong raises for more than 22 times. and he wanted to verify the allegation of the election on the fraud for the last to national assembly, the election in the month of april. but the explanation rendered by his lawyers in himself do not relisted well with the missouri of the career citizens. because this is so overblown to justify declaration of martial law. for the 1st time in 45 years to deal with these political matters, other managers would have been more than enough compared to the damages i made by the declaration of martial law. well,
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let's look at what could happen next and the possible scenarios i possible scenarios because it's not really very clear cut. what happens next, g young. let's start with president. you and i mean, he's being impeached, but potentially he could come back, couldn't team, do you think there's any chance of him coming back and having any real power? because even in the unlikely scenario that he won in the constitutional court, he would have no political power till would he so i think it's a story that can go a couple of directions at a minimum. one is sort of the impeachment process as you just post, which is, you know, the, we'll have to see if the next sort of appointments of the 3 vacant justices do in fact pass. and there's a consensus, which is also the reason that the i'm a former acting president high said was the reason why he did not approve. but um,
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so that could, i think is more likely the scenario. but on the other hand, president new has a sort of an all star team put together on his legal defense and moving forward. and that's a bit of an i'm certain factor, is he, it is a, you know, by training a career, prosecutors knows the constitution and kind of a legal has legal expertise to bring in some of the arguments potential arguments in the procedures. so i think it's one of the sort of, you know, buying time um, you know, um doing everything possible to build a case that this, there was an actual rent in his mind. but then the other hand, there's also the criminal investigations that are sort of ongoing in, in different paths. so we can talk about that too as well. so benjamin, at a certain tea there to the general children. i mean,
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we've now had 2 presidents of president marketing president who opinion page we now have the finance ministers, the acting president, choice sung milk. is there a possibility that if he doesn't come up with these extra judges with the constitutional cold, he could be impeached to where does this leave us? did they go on and on down a political packing order? yes, that's exactly what the opposition is stating. they're saying that if the vice prime minister should song a chest on who is the acting president. now if he does not appoint the 3 cause to dish 3 additional constitutional judges that they are going to impeachment impeach him as well. but this is an easier said than done is this like the 30th impeachment attempt that the opposition is attempting and it's even the people in the middle will be thinking i'm,
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i mean enough is enough. so it won't be easy for them politically to do that. and it would not be wise, but the biggest issue is the, the economy and the social um, stability. uh, there must be a political solution to this compromising khaki. and that's where we with what, that's what we don't see right now. a young check. you have a system, it seems with lots of checks and balances. the problem is that those checks and balances right now seem to be leading to deadlock and paralysis. just explained to simply how do you get to fresh elections in the korean system? well, the situation may not be as bad as described by a manual observers. the checks and balances that is better through working all the the system appears to be in k is a, one of the national assembly passed the bill to the piece the pressed on. now the
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ball using the 4th in the hands of the judge is 6 to the in the class, then of course, so this is a peaceful and a legal process. so according to the constitutional process, and now we have a 6 judges of about $9.12, then are scheduled to retire in the month of april. so as long as the 6 judges will produce the warranty whether present use on there will be peace or reinstated, before the retirement of the 2 judges, the the requirement of the 2 thirds majority and the cost of the court to make the decision on the piece from the prison will be satisfied. so to time money is not that dire, but the better scenario would be having full bench with the whole $9.00. you know, just in the close the court and 9 judges will render the going the case. so being
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peace, know the prison us on. yeah. um. so things are moving for the despite all this, uh uh, you know, kind of the struggles, delaying tactic is present use like trying to bind time. but the option potty is so strongly a bank by public opinion uh at least the 75 percent of the size can probably he's in favor of the impeach. seeing the see the result calculate the result. the about the piece, some of the further in use on your and supreme court. and the report actually made the author into the decision that acting present to exercise the right on behalf of the piece to prison, to a point for the remaining 3 judges. so when you combine the opinions, render by the spring board thing, plus the court and the public opinion, and then the chest, almo, or any other acting president,
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will be eventually making the decision g on it. i ask you now about what, how this is viewed. i mean, you will not currently in career, you'll there in the us. how is this be by the rest of the world? because south korea was seen by everyone has this great success story. it has such industry and manufacturing. it also has vibrant pulse, popular culture. everyone around the world knows k pop. do you think this is a real blow up to the countries reputation and prestige? oh, i don't necessarily think selling your rights to say that it did catch the world by surprise in part because korea's sense it's democratization has been, you know, moving forward very strongly towards it. rule of law and you know, inclusive participation. we had a record historic voter turnout in the last journal elections in april, but i think i'm certainly not speaking for everyone in the side of the ocean,
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but i do think there is a point to be made about uh you know it what, what perhaps specialists do not see or for korean living there, there is that sort of a very much a historic context, right, of course. and that is not always reported or perhaps as well. no. and so things that my fellow panelists of already you mentioned about the sort as, you know, the, the, the institutions entrenched and it's sort of, you know, geo political setting, aftermath of reading why the cold war and so on the parties. because the democratic institutions where they are, you know, they developed over time several decades up to the present point. so, so yes, there checks and balances, but perhaps this latest the bad is an opportunity,
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a moment of, quote unquote, crisis. so to perhaps, you know, discuss and build consensus on how do we avoid this happening in the future to the extent that it is structural and speaks to perhaps an institutional reforms, which is a new discussion by any stretch of imagination. genuine tongue, you'll country is the 4th largest economy in asia. how worried should we be about the economic full out the currency? the one has gone to its lowest level against the dollar since 2009. and of course, there's something else on the horizon which is the return of president trump, and he is a warning that that will be paris imposed. yeah. so i guess decide the whole process of impeachment or not, no impeachment or whatever. the political uh, term level is going to be is about the economy and how this whole political
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situation is affecting the economy. right now is as you point out, the one raid is in trouble, which is affecting tre. ready which is affecting investment all sectors of the, of green economy. and of course, as you mentioned, we have a new administration in the united states. uh, which is, which is again going to challenge for. ready yeah, but that's why we need to resolve this issue as soon as possible, but it looks like for the next, at least 3 to 6 months, we're going to live in this kind of state. and that i feel that the career and people are strong enough to be able to overcome this will have a hard time, but uh, i believe will be able to endure. and the united states, the trump administration, despite the tariffs and whatever, uh, economic developments might occur in the end. i think that
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the, the, the south korea will be able to work out a mutual deal where both countries will benefit. you only check it's not just the terrace of courses that we have to go back to last time when president trump was in the white house. at one point, he was threatening to charge south korea $10000000000.00 us dollars a year to keep us troops in the country. there are about $28000.00 us troops there . and how worried should the, the authorities be and so about not having a permanent leader at this time, which one would think is a pretty vital time for diplomacy and outreach? i know there is no question. this is a very pop idol time for suspend diplomacy in conjunction with the return of don't like from for the 2nd term, but it is very quite spent of that when prison truck was the 1st time you looked at
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it 2017. we also went through very difficult time with a case of impeachment of prison top in there. so there was no press done pena in the prison with officers, but she was suspended and the political prisoner. so somebody was replaced and exercise, but acting president upon google one. so this in that so, so for in territory for south bend government or uh, it's a citizen is dealing with the very top line us up against ration with donald trump as a president. are these are the 2nd time, but at the same time, we know what title foreign policy and trade pressure would be coming from washington. we do, you know, variation out on trauma and even with the dates of political chaos, created by the declaration of martial law. so there is an early month of
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preparation and readiness on the south 20 on side. so we know what we were going to get with a donut from coming back to the white house and that you'll pull it. it goes to goodness, go, sorry, good. can not be a discount dude, because a major target of trunk diplomacy remains the same. it's china. so in the context of the truck bought the ministration, tried to pressure and contain china. then south korea will remain as a very viable and importer on the end, the month to trump the mysterious on of the united states. despite all this political turmoils and weaknesses in the south spring government, a t on, i mean, do we still have co, sorry, sorry, general tune, go ahead. yeah, if i may just add to that. although very few south korea is there,
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save this in public. i must to remind everyone that there is still still a significant number of south koreans who are more than willing to share more for the cost of american soldiers on the korean peninsula because we feel. ready that the benefits that come from this military alliance, which creates the ability for korea and northeast asia. is frank with you, priceless. so i just want to add that to yang on that subject. of course, those trips all that because of the threat from north korea. how do you think the developments in south korea are going to be seen in pyongyang? and of course they've got the return of donald trump and that was a real c. so and what happened last time he was president of the un general assembly at the beginning of his time. he said there was a possibility for him to possibly totally destroy north korea. and then he went
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through those series of to summit. so no visit actually briefly into north korea and then diplomacy that completely picked it out by the end of his term. how confused do you think they'll be in showing young about the developments at the moment? oh, i'm not sure i would use care to rise. um i was curious, position visa, visa peninsula and its neighboring countries as being confused. i think they're watching. uh they certainly can go and has come out and condemn the president news marshall up. but i think you have to sort of step back and look at history again and, you know, i think his time has also it a different moment. right? then we were say in, even in the eighty's. so, so you know, all the things that we've been discussing about yeah, bi lateral trilateral alliance and all these things that i think under use and ministration of form policy has very much been like engage with the world right
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economically, security wise. so on and so on. democratic, a lot of these things are, i think, what could potentially, let's say there is a snap election after the ruling is um, uh, handed down from this constitutional court that we could be, you know, depending on who's in power either with e j. man. if he is, in fact the we are um, or a conservative or even a president new and right under the conservative party. these, you know, sort of status quo policies that keep south korea engage with the world. could potentially be glass or completely go the other direction. so i think that's the kind of thing that we know could happen based again on historical positions and so on, but either parties. but i think the real question and the potential threat
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in a more comprehensive use of the word is, you know, again, south korea's engagement was the world. and as you said at the outset, it's, you know, international significance as a young check advised me to be nice to other young chick i, i knew i need to move this on if you don't mind, because we're not mentioned to all the t significant class in this region, japan and china on the present human relations with japan, i think go to a little bit back. so how do you think they will be viewing the developments that we've seen recently? well, japan must be really disappointed to see the thoughtful offers on use on your own because under his leadership, the by bi lateral partnership between surrender go, has been improving drastically. the improvement was a really the big and strong on the front of the tri letters. it could corp among us,
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so span just and to deal with the growing threats from those career onto with me. so i'll send a new palms. uh, so uh, seeing use on your going down would be really shocking to japan, but that also shows the st. mary's financial aspect, so the a security cooperation between the sold in tokyo in essence. so to japan's approach to south korea, especially for the cultivation, that's a great partnership. despite she's trying to end up here to, uh, this is, will be more transactional. okay. then i can i push it, can i put you on now to very quickly to china and we can do a whole program on this, but very quickly on china, please. sure. and uh, the console over using your, uh, maybe a boot on the floor. the next to the ministration on the sides for yeah, because uh china will definitely try to make full advantage of the
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uh, potential house though the um you know, uh user on your own as being really uh, anti trying is in the overall form par c a orientation, so what i'm saying is that the despite is a political to provide and difficult economic difficulties. the political situation may open a door for south korea to cultivate new venue in the realm of, for a relation especially. so pros to china. so there are some positive aspects to be gained from such a difficult time in software. general true. and if i can end with you, that there are all sorts of problems in the region your country. technically it's anonymous, this still will with no, it's great how, why read all you about this political situation briefly? i think north korea is smart enough to know that any kind of provocation at this
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time would only unite the korean people as well as strengthen the rock and u. s. alliance as well as the japanese relationship. so right now, they're being very shrewd. they're taking their time. uh, they're using this as a, as a propaganda issue. and for the time being, uh, i think uh so being at that stage. another point is the majority of the military is quite focused on defending the nation. so i'm not that worried at all. okay, well thank you very much to our guests today. young chip, phone, g, young, rebound and invo control. if you came in midway through the show, don't worry, you can always see this program again. anytime you want it out as a result, call me your thoughts and suggestions a welcome to us that will go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. or you can find this on ex, look for a inside story. i'll be back in this chair very soon until then for me,
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james space between human doha. stay safe, bye bye. for now the is there any sign it will be for the millions of palestinians in gaza for now stuck between an outgoing biden administration and an incoming trumpet industries. now that americans have decided to put forth back in the white house, what kind of country in the world expect the quizzical look of us politics. the bottom line, the, there's no limit to how a dream contains sta in your own adventure,
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