Update: this event has now been changed to be a documentary screening and discussion about the South Korean TV show Now on my way to meet you. The below text is retained for archival purposes but is no longer relevant.
Asia in Realignment: The Impeachment of Park Geun-hye
Frontline Club | 13 Norfolk Place | London W2 1QJ
Wednesday 19 April 2017, 7:00 PM
Book hereA South Korean court removed the president on 10 March, marking a first in the nation’s history and triggering an adjustment of relations with North Korea, the United States and China.
Her removal came after months of turmoil, as hundreds of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets to protest a sprawling corruption scandal that shook the top ranks of business and government. With the immunity conferred by her office now gone, Ms. Park faces prosecutors seeking to charge her with bribery, extortion and abuse of power in connection with allegations of conspiring to collect tens of millions of dollars in bribes from companies including Samsung.
The acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, has called the lack of a president represented a national “emergency”. What can be expected as Korea moves to elect its new president, and is the Korean people’s successful protest against corruption part of an international trend?
Speakers (additional speakers announced soon)
Paul French is an author and widely published analyst and commentator on Asia, Asian politics and current affairs. He is author of North Korea: State of Paranoia and the international and bestseller Midnight in Peking.
John Everard is former British Ambassador to North Korea and author of Only Beautiful, Please: A British Diplomat in North Korea
Celia Hatton is the Asia Pacific editor for the BBC World Service in London and a BBC News presenter. From 2001 to 2016, she worked as a broadcast journalist based in Beijing, from where she covered stories in China, South Korea, Japan, India and South-East Asia. Celia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Studies from Queen’s University in Canada and a Masters in International Relations from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
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