JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
South Korea's parliament voted today to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo. This move comes less than two weeks after lawmakers impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol. President Yoon had attempted to invoke martial law earlier this month, setting off a series of events that's created turmoil in South Korean politics. Here to discuss is Jean Lee, a fellow with the East-West Center in Honolulu and a former AP Seoul bureau chief. Welcome, Jean.
JEAN LEE: Hi. Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: I mean, it seems, just as someone who's watching all of this play out, this happened out of the blue. Do we have any sense of why the acting president was impeached?
LEE: This comes down to politics. Politics is very partisan in South Korea. For us, it looks like political upheaval, but it really comes down to a domestic political battle that has far-reaching implications. And so what this comes down to is the ruling party trying to hold on to power and the opposition really trying to take advantage of this political upheaval to force its way into power. But, of course, you know, for us, looking at it from a distance, this is what it looks like, and what it is is the implosion of this government and a political vacuum, a leadership vacuum that really is going to have implications far beyond what's happening in Seoul.
It's happening at a time of transition politically here, you know, in Washington, at a time when you really need South Korea to be working closely with the United States to shore up that relationship and to shore up the relationship with Japan because you've got these bigger issues - North Korea working with Russia. And when you have a political vacuum, it just means that there is a more tenuous communication and cooperation, and so that's what has me very concerned.
South Korea has been such an important partner for the United States politically. And also, you know, it is one of the world's largest economies. And this news - so the - one of the things that I looked at was what's happening to the South Korean currency. I mean, it is just tanking. It's at its lowest in more than 15 years, almost 16 years, and so that also means there's this economic volatility.
SUMMERS: This impeachment means that the acting president has been relieved of his duty. So just at a practical level, who is running the country now, and what comes next?
LEE: So the impeachment vote means that the acting president's duties have been suspended, so he will have to wait to see if the constitutional court will vote to uphold it or overturn it. So we now have got the president who's waiting for that decision. We've got the acting president waiting for that decision. Both of their duties have been suspended. The deputy prime minister for economic affairs, who is the finance minister, is now stepping in. This is really interesting because I will be watching very closely to see what kinds of decisions he makes. I just talked about economic volatility. He is somebody that perhaps will look at the broader implications of economic instability and investor confidence in South Korea and maybe make some decisions that will help bring some stability politically.
SUMMERS: Jean, what are you hearing from people in South Korea as they are digesting this latest news?
LEE: I think for all South Koreans, it is extremely frustrating. They take democracy very seriously. It's a very young democracy, and it's a hard-won democracy. And they take it very seriously, so that's why you've seen this passionate outpouring of people into the plaza outside the National Assembly. I don't know if you've been there, but it is massive. And the images that we're seeing of people just filling that plaza - it's inconceivable to me - with their K-pop batons, right? - with their K-pop torches. But it's a political battle as well, so I think that there's a lot of frustration at how a partisan divide can spill over and cause this type of government paralysis. And frankly, I think that we have some lessons that we can learn from that as well. Can some moderates come in and really bring this country, this government back on stable footing?
SUMMERS: That's Jean Lee, a fellow with the East-West Center in Honolulu and a former AP Seoul bureau chief. Thank you so much.
LEE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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