South Korea’s President, Park Geun-hye, was recently impeached in an overwhelming vote by the Korean Parliament. Before being removed from office the ruling must be upheld in court. This will mark the first time a South Korean leader has been ousted from office. Park has been accused of colluding with a friend and a former aide, both of whom have been indicted, to pressure big businesses to donate to foundations set up to back her policy initiatives. The South Korean Prime Minister is already being briefed on affairs in preparation for Park’s impending impeachment. This impeachment comes following a year of complete change for world governments. Following the Brexit vote, British Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, France’s president Francois Hollande has announced he will not run again and it is highly unlikely his party will maintain power in France, Italy’s Prime Minister also recently stepped down after a referendum he had pushed for ended in failure, and in America, Donald Trump beat out Hillary Clinton for the presidency it was widely projected she would easily win. This nationalist revolution taking place throughout Europe and the United States is, however, by no means the only reason for the ousting of world leaders. Brazilian president Dilma Roussef was impeached in August and replaced by Michel Temer, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s second term is over and he is being replaced by Antonio Guterres, and many other countries around the world have faced changes in parties in power due to election cycles or impeachments. Though it is undoubtedly important that South Korea will have a new leader and, as such, a new agenda, it is only the latest country to join a vast array of countries with changing agendas and changing leaders this year and will likely change much less than many other major global players.
