“Maybe we can export our impeachment know-how to the U. S.?” South Korean netizens ask.
SEOUL — South Koreans know how to impeach a president. Seventeen weeks of peaceful protest, combined with a parliamentary vote and a landmark court decision, led to the dismissal of Park Geun-hye in March amid a massive corruption scandal. Park is now behind bars and being tried on 18 charges, including bribery and extortion.
Moon Jae-in, a down-to-earth liberal who could not be more different from the aloof, conservative Park, took office earlier this month and has quickly won widespread approval. His support ratings have hit astronomical levels this week, with 87 percent of those polled by Gallup Korea saying they think he’s going to do well as president (compared with the 4 or 5 percent support rate that Park was recording at the beginning of this year) .
Now, South Koreans are becoming obsessed with the political drama emanating from Washington.
When you search “Trump” on Naver, South Korea’s biggest internet search site, the auto-fill suggests: “Trump impeachment, ” then “Trump Russia.” Other suggested searches include “Trump FBI, ” “Trump impeachment reason” and “Trump Comey.”
Blogs are full of commentary on the similarities between Park and Trump — both took up the mantles of their fathers, both have “communication difficulties” — and the differences in the two countries’ political systems.
But online — where young South Koreans spend an inordinate amount of time — plenty of people are offering to help Americans follow in their footsteps.
This is quite a remarkable development since it was only 30 years ago that South Korea became a democracy while the United States has long considered itself an exemplar of democracy. The last Republican president, George W. Bush, devoted a considerable amount of energy to trying to export American democracy to countries run by dictators.
Posting a story about Trump and the FBI director he fired, James Comey, on her blog, a “netizen” called Fatima20 wrote: “Maybe we can export our impeachment know-how to the U.
