A brief calm returned to the streets of Seoul a day after the tumultuous events that saw the dawn of a new political reality in South Korea.
President Park Geun-hye is due to leave office after a Constitutional Court on Friday upheld a vote by lawmakers to impeach her.
With Park out, South Koreans’ attention is now turning to what leadership the next election will usher in, and how the new leadership will handle relationships with the US and North Korea.
Police presence in Seoul was heavy Saturday, after violent protests following the court’s ruling by pro-Park supporters, which resulted in the deaths of three demonstrators.
Thousands of people have taken once again to the streets of the capital, massing at two semi-permanent protest camps mere blocks apart for twin events Saturday afternoon: a protest by Park’s supporters, and a celebratory rally led by trade unions.
The latter demonstration is expected to attract many of the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out in December to demand Park’s ouster.
Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn has appealed for unity, saying the conflict has polarized the nation and led Koreans to view each other as “enemies.”
Park supporters worried
Amid a crowd of tents outside Seoul City Hall, hundreds of supporters of Park gathered.
The rally was much smaller than other pro-Park protests in recent weeks. According to news agency Yonhap, polls show that more than 70% of Koreans support Park’s impeachment.
They waved South Korean and American flags and sang then national anthem to protest the Constitutional Court’s order.
“We impeach the impeachment,” a presenter shouted from the stage outside city hall.
Demonstrators, many of them in tears, were encouraged to introduce themselves to each other for the “struggle ahead.”
Jung Yun-hee, 64, criticized the verdict, saying that it was unfair and not in keeping with the letter of the law. “Even if Park was responsible for mismanagement, she didn’t personally profit,” she said.
“The freedom of the democracy and the constitution are being threatened,” said Kim Jung-hyun, in his 40s.
“There was no reason for the impeachment,” Jason Choi, 36, told CNN outside City Hall, where he stood draped in a South Korean flag. “But we will follow the decision of the court.”
Both Kim and Choi expressed concern that a potential future left-wing government may reverse the decision to deploy the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), a defensive missile system. The first pieces of THAAD reached South Korea last week.
“The next government must support the security relationship with our friends in the US,” Kim said. “We support THAAD deployment because right now North Korea and China are pointing their missiles at us.”
Pyongyang weighed in on the impeachment Saturday in an editorial from Rodong Sinmun, a state-run media outlet.
“Park Geun-hye is an ignorant and uncouth dictator who squandered the taxpayer’s precious money for her own complacency and pleasure,” the piece read. “How pathetic is her wretched life.”
Choi said he was worried that the next government would be “China friendly,” and would stop the deployment of THAAD, which Beijing opposes.
One woman, who turned down CNN’s request for an interview, said she “only had swear words to say about the Constitutional Court.”
The generational divide was clear, with few pro-Park demonstrators under 40 in sight.
Celebration
At the historic Gwanghwamun Square, blocks away from the city hall, the atmosphere was completely different.
By early afternoon, hundreds of protesters — many of them who had braved the biting Korean winter to take to the streets and demand Park’s ouster late last year — were pouring into the square.
Huge barriers, manned by dozens of police officers, separate the two protest camps.
Unlike the mostly homogenous crowd by city hall, the anti-Park protesters were far younger and more diverse, similar to the December crowds led by unions and students.
Many walked around in costume, as others handed out yellow balloons and candles to commemorate the Sewol Ferry disaster.
Pop music played and the atmosphere was cheerful as people posed for photos with each other and the semi-permanent protest art that has been in the square for months.
“Today feels like a festival,” Mun Ha-neul, 17, said. “Everyone is feeling happy.”
When asked about the generational divide between the two protests, Kim Dae-rim, 30, said it would be a good idea for older Koreans “to learn from the young people.”
Artist An Hyun-jung, 30, who has been staging performances criticizing Park on Gwanghwamun Square, expects Saturday’s rally to be bigger than previous ones.
“This is like a festival to say that (we’ve) done something great, and to keep it up,” she said.
“A country’s president committed an illegal act. Many people’s lives were threatened in the process, I think there would be no hope if it was not evaluated properly and punished accordingly.”
Despite this, she pointed to a host of other issues facing the country, not least the upcoming election.
“It doesn’t feel like this is the end, I think we will be heading to the next fight,” she said.
Park’s fate
South Korea’s first female President remains in the Blue House, South Korea’s executive mansion, for now, despite being ordered to vacate her once childhood home when her father, Park Chung-hee, was President.
Prosecutors are expected to begin interrogating Park as early as Monday on corruption charges, and may seek to block her from leaving the country, according to Korean broadcaster YTN.
The President is accused of being unduly influenced by her longtime friend and adviser, Choi Soon-sil, who is on trial for abuse of power and fraud.
The Constitutional Court agreed with accusations that Park had abused her authority in helping Choi raise donations from companies for foundations she had set up.
An election for Park’s replacement must be held within 60 days, and an ad-hoc cabinet meeting will be held soon, a government official told CNN.
Experts predict the election will take place May 9.
With Park’s ruling conservatives looking out of favor, it seems likely the country will turn to the left-wing opposition, which has signaled it would be likely to pursue a policy of engagement with North Korea, as opposed to the more hard line position offered by Park and her conservative allies.
Liberal candidate Moon Jae-in, of the opposition Democratic United Party, currently leads the opinion polls. Moon was defeated narrowly by Park in the 2012 presidential election.
“Korea will start again based on this new and surprising experience,” Moon said in a statement on his Facebook page.
