ADRN

 

Experts react to President Park's announcement she will step down

 

After weeks of uncertainty about what’s become known as the “Choi-gate” scandal and four Saturdays of protest in a row demanding her resignation, South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye finally came forward on Tuesday and offered to step down as commander in chief.

 

Park’s passing the buck to the National Assembly to determine her fate comes amid an increasing push from opposition parties to impeach her, but was also conditional, offering no clear indication of exactly when or how she might leave office.

 

South Korea’s current state of affairs has made it an easy target for North Korea, which has closely monitored the conflict via South Korean social media posts, and published spreads of the weekly anti-Park demonstrations that numbered up to 2 million. But how will North Korea respond to this event? NK News reached out to experts around the world with three pressing questions.

 

The following North Korea specialists responded on time for our Tuesday deadline:

 

Aidan Foster-Carter – Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea at Leeds University in England
Alison Evans – Deputy Head IHS Country Risk’s APAC desk, London
Andray Abrahamian – Honorary Fellow at Macquarie University and long-time North Korea watcher
Andrew Salmon: Seoul-based author of two Korean War histories, and Korea correspondent for France24’s English-language service
Choi Young-il – Seoul-based political pundit and a professor affiliated with Kyunghee University
Cha Du-Hyeong – Former intelligence secretary to President Lee Myung-bak
Chang Yong-seok – Senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS) at Seoul National University (SNU)
Choi Jong-kun – Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Yonsei University
Chris Green – Former manager of International Affairs for North Korea news and analysis experts Daily NK and Co-editor of SinoNK
Jeong Kuk-jin – Former researcher at the MBC Unification Broadcasting Research Center
Jaesung Ryu – Former research fellow at the Seoul-based East Asia Institute.
John Lee – Pro-free-market blogger at the Korean Foreigner (thekoreanforeigner.blogspot.com) focusing on economic and political issues
Kim Dong-yup – researcher at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies