SEOUL – The South Korean court that will rule on the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye has only one precedent and little in the law books to go by, and several legal experts said it will have wide discretion in deciding if she is fit to remain in office.
Seven of nine experts interviewed by Reuters said they believed the Constitutional Court’s yardstick in deciding whether Park should remain in office would be less than the standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” for criminal trials, making it more difficult for her to win the case.
South Korean law does not specify the standard needed by the Constitutional Court to reach a ruling. It calls for criminal procedural law to be applied during an impeachment trial “at a level that does not clash with the nature of a constitutional trial.”
Experts say this means that the Constitutional Court has discretion on deciding which part of criminal procedure it will apply, including whether to use a rigorous level of proof, a lower standard, or apply a rigorous standard for some deliberations and a lower standard for others.
Two experts, however, said a high standard would be needed to establish grounds for upholding impeachment.
Park, 64, was impeached by the National Assembly last month over an influence peddling scandal. If the nine-judge Constitutional Court rules that she did allow a friend to have influence over state affairs, as alleged, and that it was an impeachable offense, she will be ousted, making her South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.
“This is not a criminal trial, it’s a constitutional trial deciding whether a president is no longer fit to carry out presidential duties,” said Noh Hee-bum, a lawyer who worked as a Constitutional Court research judge from 1998 to 2015.
“Although it’s not expressly stipulated in law, it is the prevailing view that the level of proof is not as severe.”
That, some experts said, would make it more difficult for Park.
“The common view, a lower burden of proof, is comparatively unfavorable to Park than a higher burden of proof would be,” said Koh Moon-hyun, a professor at the Soongsil University College of Law.
Park has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and her lawyers have argued that the case should be thrown out.
“In an impeachment proceeding, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is needed,” her lawyer, Lee Joong-hwan, said in court on Tuesday, citing a publication by the research institute attached to the Constitutional Court.
“We can see that this means a rigorous level of proof is needed based on evidentiary principles of criminal procedure,” he said.
The parliament’s impeachment committee and its legal counsel, who are the prosecutors in the case, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Two sessions of the trial have been held this week and Park did not attend, as expected. Lee said he believes she will not appear, barring special circumstances. The court can take several months to deliver a ruling.
Park is accused of violating her constitutional duty by allowing her friend, Choi Soon-sil, to wield undue influence over state affairs and colluding with her to pressure big businesses into making contributions to foundations and enterprises backed by Choi.
Choi is in custody as she undergoes criminal trial for abuse of power and fraud. Her daughter, 20-year-old equestrian competitor Chung Yoo-ra, has been detained by police in Denmark and faces extradition proceedings after being charged with “committing economic crime” in South Korea.
Both have denied any wrongdoing.
Choi told the court on Thursday that she faces “much unfairness” and again denied the criminal charges against her.
Choi, in custody since late October, had declined to appear for questioning at the special prosecutor’s office multiple times, including on Wednesday.
Former presidential aides An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong were present in court on Thursday alongside Choi. They face charges including misuse of power.
“There was no collusion between my client, the president and An. There is no truth in saying the accused (Choi) was involved in collecting funds for foundations from conglomerates,” Lee Kyung-jae, Choi’s lead lawyer, told the court.
“The accused has not sought one bit of financial gain for herself since the day the foundations were established.”
In South Korea’s only previous presidential impeachment, the Constitutional Court overturned a 2004 parliamentary impeachment of then-President Roh Moo-hyun.
The 2004 case mainly involved Roh’s public comments supporting a political party as an election loomed, which the court said violated a law requiring government officials to be politically neutral but was not serious enough to warrant impeachment. The judges voted 6 to 3 to overturn that motion.
In that decision, the court cited five examples of grounds for impeachment, and experts said the impeachment committee is likely to argue in favor of at least three of them in Park’s case — “acts of corruption,” “harming the national interest” and “violating the people’s basic rights.”
As the only precedent, the Constitutional Court is expected to closely adhere to the logic of the 2004 ruling — especially on what constitutes grounds for impeachment, experts said.
Lee In-ho, a professor at Chung-Ang University School of Law, said although the level of proof required to convince the judges was not expressly spelled out in law, a high standard would be needed.
“In 2004, the Constitutional Court ruled that if facts do not verify that the president directed, abetted or otherwise unlawfully participated in the act in question, it is not grounds for impeachment,” Lee said. “I believe the judges will decide that a rigorous level of proof similar to a criminal trial is needed.”
For the impeachment to stand, at least six of the nine judges must rule in favor of it.
The terms of two of them are set to expire soon — one on Jan. 31 and the other on March 13 — potentially leaving just seven judges, the minimum required. If the case goes past March 13, that could work in Park’s favor because the number of judges needed to uphold impeachment remains at six.
Unlike in 2004, each judge’s decision will be made public.

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SEOUL: The impeachment trial of South Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye got under way Thursday (Jan 5), with her lawyers arguing there is no evidence to back the corruption allegations that threaten to force her from office.
Parliament voted to impeach Park last month over an influence-peddling scandal that has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets every week demanding her removal.
Park is accused of colluding with a longtime friend, Choi Soon-Il, to strong-arm donations worth tens of millions of dollars from top firms which were then funnelled to dubious foundations.
She is also accused of using her influence to ensure the merger of two Samsung units in 2015 in order to help facilitate a father-to-son power succession of Samsung’s founding family.
The National Assembly, which must have its vote upheld by the Constitutional Court, accused Park of a serious breach of the constitution during the first full hearing in the impeachment case.
« The court is requested to fire the president so that impaired constitutional order can be restored », said Kwon Seong-Dong, a lawmaker representing the parliament.
« She ignored her duty as the head of state and chief administrator of the country. « 
The Constitutional Court’s initial hearing on Tuesday was curtailed after Park failed to attend. It decided to proceed on Thursday regardless of whether she was present.
Park’s lawyers urged the court to overturn the vote, saying the impeachment motion had been based on « high possibility at best » and insisted she be reinstated as president immediately.
« There is no solid evidence to back the impeachment », Park’s lawyer Lee Jung-Hwan told the court.
Park has repeatedly denied the corruption allegations in sometimes tearful televised addresses, while apologising for lapses.
In a rare meeting with journalists on Sunday, she said she had only sought to listen through Choi to ordinary citizens’ opinion on her polices and speeches.

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FILE – In this Jan. 11, 2015 file photo, South Korean army K-55 self-propelled artillery vehicles move during a military exercise near the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea. South Korea will form a special military unit this year tasked with removing North Korea’s leadership in the event of war as Seoul looks for options to counter its rival’s nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon. File)
(The Associated Press)
SEOUL, South Korea –   South Korea is accelerating plans to create a special military unit tasked with decapitating North Korea’s leadership in the event of war as it looks for options to counter its rival’s nuclear weapons and missiles.
An official from Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that the brigade, which will aim to remove the North’s wartime command and paralyze its function if war breaks out, will be launched this year. The unit was originally planned to be ready by 2019.
North Korea conducted two nuclear tests and a slew of rocket test firings last year in attempts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile program.

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posted at 1:21 pm on January 5, 2017 by John Sexton
It has become routine for North Korea to issue threats of a nuclear strike if the country is attacked. Now South Korea is responding with a threatening warning of its own. The country is openly announcing it will set up a “decapitation unit” capable of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if North Korea initiates a war. From CNN:
The country is speeding up plans to set up what some call a “decapitation unit,” a brigade specifically tasked with targeting North Korea’s “wartime command,” including leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korea Defense Ministry official… The brigade was initially supposed to be ready in 2019, but the Defense Ministry now says it’ll be established “by this year.”
This announcement appears to be motivated by recent North Korean provocations including a military exercise last month that simulated an attack on the South Korean equivalent of the White House. From a CNN story published last month:
Photos published in North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun appeared to show a mockup of South Korea’s presidential Blue House as a target. “Well done, the enemy troops will have no space to hide themselves, far from taking any counteraction,” Kim reportedly said after watching the drill, according to North Korean state media KCNA. The report specifically mentioned the South as a target for North Korean forces, as Kim offered advice on a “guerilla warfare” invasion of the country’s southern neighbor and rival.
South Korea suspects Kim Jong un is trying to capitalize on political disruption in the country. South Korean President Park Guen-hye was impeached last month and her authority as president was stripped while a court decides her fate. The court has until June to decide whether her authority should be reinstated or she is removed from office. In the meantime, the public announcement of a “decapitation unit” aimed at North Korea is being made by the Ministry of Defense.

© Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2017/01/05/south-korea-accelerating-creation-of-decapitation-unit-in-case-of-war-with-north-korea/
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A P-3CK Orion plane, similar to the one involved in the mishap.
We spend our days poking at screens without thinking.
Our fingers push, press and swipe long before we consider why they’re doing what they’re doing. Sometimes, our fingers make mistakes. We, though, can generally erase and correct.
That option seems not to have been available to a member of the South Korean navy who managed to push the wrong button at the wrong time, with costly results.
As the Yonhap news agency reports , the navy was performing a routine mission over the East Sea (also known as the Sea of Japan) on Sunday when a substantial amount of its weaponry went south.
It seems that a P-3CK anti-submarine and maritime surveillance plane suffered a human mishap.
« One of the plane’s crew mistakenly touched the emergency weapons release switch, » an official source told Yonhap.
What was the damage? Three Harpoon missiles, a torpedo and depth charges were sent to the depths. They don’t appear to have hit anyone or anything. However, the navy took a financial hit.
A Harpoon missile retails at around $1.2 million. Your average torpedo — the South Korean navy often uses the Chung Sang Eo model — could cost almost a million. Add the cost of the depth charges and there goes something close to $5 million.
Attempts to contact the Korean navy were unsuccessful, however Yonhap reported that the weapons weren’t armed and that a salvage ship and a minesweeper had been sent to locate them.
I wonder what happened to the button-pusher when the plane returned to base.

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North Korean officials recently announced that the country was on the verge of testing a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that could reach the United States. President-elect Donald Trump drew a line in the sand. “Won’t happen,” he said on Twitter. If North Korea attempts to test an ICBM, the United States has a number of options to stop it. All carry risks.
Trump’s red line mirrored past statements from policymakers. Ten years ago, future Defense Secretary Ash Carter and former Defense Secretary William Perry wrote , “Should the United States allow a country [North Korea] openly hostile to it and armed with nuclear weapons to perfect an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering nuclear weapons to U. S. soil? We believe not.”
How close is North Korea to an actual nuclear ballistic missile and what are the president’s military and policy options? Let’s take a look.
North Korea is researching a variety of missiles that with research and development could be converted into ICBMs. In February, North Korea launched a satellite into orbit aboard its 28-meter, three-stage Unha rocket.
“Several U. S. four-star commanders have said North Korea has, or we must assume they have, the ability to reach the continental U. S. with a nuclear warhead with the Taepo Dong (Unha) missile,” said Bruce Klinger, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. The Unha has a range of 10,000 kilometers, sufficient to hit the United States. Klinger argues that the range might be closer to 13,000 kilometers, enough to reach the East Coast.
But shooting a satellite into space is a different feat of physics than demonstrating an ICBM, which must re-enter the earth’s atmosphere along a controlled and precise trajectory to its target.
“The Unha-2 or -3 could serve as a springboard for the development of an ICBM, but the history of long-range missile development by other countries, including the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and France, indicates that satellite launch activities have limited impact on missile programs. No country has converted a satellite launch rocket into a long-range ballistic missile,” according to Michael Elleman and Emily Werk of the Arms Control Association.
A more likely candidate for a near-term ICBM test is the 16-meter-long KN-08 ballistic missile. It can be launched via a truck platform, making it harder to hit with a pre-emptive strike. It currently has a documented range of about 6,700 kilometers, due to fuel limitations. In April 2016, North Korea unveiled photos of an engine test that purported to show a new rocket engine capable, potentially, of sending a nuclear warhead to the United States.
“Using this technology, North Korea’s road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the KN-08 or the KN-14 modification, could deliver a nuclear warhead to targets at a distance of 10,000 to 13,000 kilometers. That range, greater than had previously been expected, could allow Pyongyang to reach targets on the U. S. east coast, including New York or Washington,” John Schelling wrote in April on the blog of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “If the current ground test program continues and is successful, flight tests of a North Korean ICBM could begin in as little as a year. Moreover, Pyongyang may be able to deploy this delivery system in a limited operational capability by 2020.”
The second component needed for a nuclear missile is a miniaturized warhead. On Tuesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U. S. does not believe that North Korea has a weapon small enough to fit atop ICBM. But that may be little more than a temporary state of affairs.
At a Defense One event in November, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U. S. Pacific Command, said , “I have to assume that they have it … I believe it when Kim Jong Un expresses his intent.”
* * *
So how do you make sure the test “won’t happen?” On the one hand, you could launch a coordinated airstrike, sending jets or bombers over North Korea to destroy the missile on the launch pad as it is about to take off. But that carries risks of triggering a rocket retaliation against South Korea, risking massive casualties.
“The reason why the U. S. didn’t do what Carter and Perry had suggested [in 2006] of course, was we were concerned that if we did that, North Korea would probably shell Seoul with artillery. That was an unacceptable escalation,” said RAND Corporation’s Bruce Bennett.
Once an ICBM is launched, here are the options to stop it. To protect the continental U. S., the United States has 30 ground-based interceptor missiles in Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
The United States is working to deploy other anti-missile systems, such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD system, but those are designed to intercept shorter-ranged missiles.
The “THAAD battery is designed to intercept their medium-range missiles like the No-dong missile and the Musudan missile, if fired at South Korea. The THAAD missiles have a range of only 200 kilometers, and that battery would be put close to Busan, so they can’t even really cover Seoul with that battery, let alone something flying out over the Pacific,” said Bennett. South Korea long has expressed interest in an anti-rocket defense system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome , but has not bought that system or fielded such protection.
The United States also has Aegis BMD-equipped ships in the Pacific armed with Standard missiles capable of intercepting medium-range ballistic missiles. But “these aren’t designed for intercontinental-range missiles,” said one Defense Department official. The Aegis system is designed primarily to protect ships, not shoot down ICBMs.
“Some of these ships are based in Europe as part of a NATO missile defense system. Some of them are based in the Pacific as part of a defense system for our allies. There’s also a terminal defense system in Guam that’s designed to defend Guam. These things exist; there are capabilities. But for an ICBM, obviously the major concern of an ICBM is defending against a sufficiently long-range threat, which would be the homeland, right? You wouldn’t use an ICBM if you were North Korea trying to attack Japan, it’s too close, doesn’t make any sense,” said the official.
It may make sense from a resource perspective, but does show Trump’s red line to be difficult to enforce.
* * *
The military has shown that it can take down ballistic missiles with laser-armed planes, going back to 1983. Today, the Missile Defense Agency is researching new methods for stopping an ICBM before it hits the air. Lasers are still the most attractive option. “One of the options available to us that we are going to start testing here in the next couple years is a laser aboard a unmanned vehicle, [or drone] something that has some level of persistence that can be in the area and could engage when the missile is at its most easily targetable, but that’s some ways off,” said the official, referring to the low-power-laser demonstrator program .
The program follows the airborne-laser program , or ABL. “We have proven that capability, so now the idea is if we can make it small enough and powerful enough and have a UAV with sufficient dwell capability, we would be able to keep them in some numbers over an area,” said the official.
Unlike ABL, the low-power demonstrator would use a safer, more energy-saving solid state laser rather than a chemical laser.
A laser-armed drone flying over North Korea could easier to deploy than an airstrike, and damage could be limited to the missile itself. And it still risks North Korean retaliation against U. S. allies in the region. Until then, the United States has a number of non-violent policy responses.
“There is still much that can be done against North Korea and, through third-party sanctions, foreign entities that facilitate North Korea’s prohibited programs,” said Klinger. “Rather than initiating an attack on North Korea for crossing yet another technological threshold, it would be more prudent to reserve a preemptive attack for when the Intelligence Community has strong evidence of imminent strategic nuclear attack on the U. S. or its allies. Similarly, a lone North Korean missile on a test flight aimed only at open water does not pose an imminent or existential threat to the United States. Intercepting such a flight, as some have advocated, would redirect international focus and anger away from another North Korean violation of UN resolutions and instead to the U. S. military action.”
This article appears courtesy of DefenseOne .

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(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea will form a special military brigade this year tasked with removing North Korea’s leadership in the event of war as Seoul looks for options to counter its rival’s nuclear weapons and missiles, an official said Thursday.

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Kitchee will take on Thai Super League soccer champions Muangthong United when the Lunar New Year Cup kicks off on January 28 at Hong Kong Stadium. The opening day will also feature K-League champions FC Seoul against the Australian Under-23 squad, managed by former Kitchee coach Josep Gombau. The two winners will meet in the final three days later with a US$60,000 winner’s cheque at stake. There will also be a play-off for third place. Kitchee, who are also the organiers, say Seoul will send their strongest team led by former Arsenal player Park Chu-yong. This year’s tournament sees a return to the traditional format of having overseas teams. Last year feature a watered-down event involving local teams. Muangthong United took part in the 2013 tournament in Hong Kong. Tickets are priced at HK$380, HK$280, HK$180 and HK$100 (concessionary) and will be available through Cityline from Tuesday.

© Source: http://www.scmp.com/sport/article/2059694/kitchee-take-thailands-muangthong-united-lunar-new-year-cup-opener
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