00:00Following the constitutional court's ruling, President Un is now former President Un.
00:04What does this mean for Korea?
00:07I think South Korea has been through a lot in terms of the polarization of the country
00:14along political lines, along ideological lines, along generational lines, and regional lines
00:20as well.
00:21Those were there beforehand, but the last four months since the coup attempt of December
00:273rd have really raised those levels of polarization to extreme heights that I think are unprecedented.
00:39And so it's a matter of trying to recover from that following this verdict by the constitutional
00:46court.
00:48The country, I think, will remain polarized, but at least there will not be any more fear
00:56or, on the other side, hope that President Un will come back to office.
01:02So with that polarization of the country in mind, how does Korea move forward politically
01:08with a snap election that must be held in the coming 60 days?
01:12It's tough to imagine that the country will be more polarized than it is right now.
01:17I think the trial for the impeachment really did heighten things and maybe to an extreme
01:24extent.
01:27It might be that the upcoming election, which will take place on June 3rd at the latest,
01:32the presidential election will move very swiftly into the campaign stage.
01:38And if precedent is followed, then perhaps within a month, the two major parties will
01:45have selected their candidates.
01:48And I hope that whoever comes out as the candidate for the former ruling party, there will be
01:59somewhat of a moderation of tone between that person and almost certainly the candidate
02:06for the Democratic Party, who will be Lee Jae-myung.
02:12Although that's not a certainty, I would be stunned if Un's party candidate wins the
02:21presidential election.
02:23But I've been stunned repeatedly over the past four months.
02:30You mentioned that there are events that shocked you over the past four months.
02:34Aside from the surprise declaration martial law, what was the most shocking event to you?
02:39I was shocked most by the vocalization, the expression of authoritarian sentiment in South
02:50Korea as the political polarization increased following the impeachment by the National
03:01Assembly in mid-December, and then the beginning of the constitutional court trial to verify
03:08that impeachment soon thereafter at the end of December, the process which came to a close
03:15today.
03:18And more specifically, I was stunned at the positions and expressions of the leaders of
03:26Un's party, the main conservative party, which was in the overwhelming minority.
03:32These people had more responsibility to uphold, you would think, the very institutions that
03:39gave them their authority, and yet they behaved and said things that were stunning, and they've
03:46been all put to shame by today's verdict.
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