SEOUL (AFP) – Protesters began gathering in the streets of Seoul for the eighth straight week Saturday, pushing their demands for the swift and permanent removal of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-Hye.
Organisers said the mass rally would march on the Constitutional Court whose nine justices are considering the validity of the impeachment bill passed by the national assembly more than a week ago.
The court has 180 days to make a ruling, but the protesters are pressing for a swift judgement.
Although Park has been stripped of her substantial executive powers, she is allowed to retain the title of president and continue to live in the presidential Blue House while the court deliberates.
The protesters are adamant that she should resign immediately and face criminal prosecution.
But Park still has her supporters, many of them elderly voters who remain steadfast admirers of her father, the late military dictator Park Chung-Hee – credited as the architect of the South’s economic transformation but vilified as an authoritarian rights abuser.