ROK in shock over Roh impeachment

South Korea's opposition party lawmakers and security guards remove pro-Roh Uri Party lawmakers who block the Speaker's chair before voting could start in Seoul yesterday. The South Korean National Assembly voted 193 votes to two to impeach President Roh Moo-Hyun, the parliamentary Speaker announced. Roh was suspended from office after opposition lawmakers passed an historic impeachment vote, leaving the country in political chaos. PHOTO: AFP

Some were ashamed, others angry and many fearful of how the decision will affect the country.

Results of the impeachment vote came at 11:55 a.m. Many huddled around TVs in supermarkets and shops around the country. Some sighed at the speaker's announcement, others simply shook their heads.

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"It is so lamentable," office worker Kim Jong-wan, 40, said. "It is so shameful at the same time. The impeachment will raise great disturbances. I am afraid that it will endanger our economic and political situation."

Said civil servant Lee Dong-hun, "I was so disappointed by the politicians. I am too frustrated to say anything else. The lawmakers' behavior is mean and childish."

Some agreed with the impeachment and predicted better times ahead.

"It is the proper decision though some confusion may follow for the time being," homemaker Lee Eun-young, 34, said. "But the country will be soon be stabilized when a good and qualified president takes office instead of Roh."

Business owner Lee In-geun, 58, agreed.

"President Roh must resign owing to his misgovernment," he said. "If he stays in power, Korean society cannot avoid more confusion."

Most who spoke with The Korea Herald opposed the impeachment. And a poll taken just days before the vote suggested about 60 per cent of South Koreans felt the same way.

"It is ridiculous," said angry office worker Lee Sun-young, who is in her 20s. "If someone has to be impeached for small things like President Roh was, all politicians in Korea must be impeached. Today will be recorded as a shameful day in our history." Yonsei University student Jamie Kais said, "He did not do enough things wrong to be impeached." Like many others, this foreign student fears the National Assembly's decision will plunge the country into confusion.