When the Constitutional Court removed President Park Geun-hye from office last week, there were waves of social media messages thanking students at one Sou
SEOUL – When the Constitutional Court removed President Park Geun-hye from office last week, there were waves of social media messages thanking students at one South Korean university for sparking the historic change.
Last summer, months before the public learned about a shadowy adviser behind Park, Ewha Womans University students gathered on the Seoul campus to protest something that initially seemed unrelated to national politics: the school administration’s decision to create a new degree program.
Ewha, considered the country’s top women’s university, soon withdrew the plan, but the students did not stop there, pressing on with their sit-in to urge the school president’s resignation. The efforts to topple the university president ended up uncovering a crucial piece of the puzzle in the political scandal that eventually brought down the country’s leader: the school’s favoritism to an equestrian athlete who turned out to be the daughter of Park’s secretive confidante, Choi Soon-sil.
The extent of Ewha’s favors to Choi’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, was further investigated by South Korea’s parliament and a special prosecution team. Seven school officials, including its former president and several professors, were indicted on criminal charges, and Chung’s admission to the university was canceled.
The episode struck a nerve in the country, where many young people work hard to get into a prestigious university, and unleashed the massive popular movement that would help unseat Park, who was impeached by parliament in December and formally removed from office by the court on Friday. Park is accused of colluding with her confidante to extort money from businesses while allowing Choi to pull government strings from the shadows.
“It was a total surprise for us to discover Choi Soon-sil’s link to the school,” said Kim Ji-Eun, a 1994 graduate of Ewha who joined thousands of students and alumni to rally against the university’s president.
Although the student protesters may not have intended to force out Park, experts said their movement would be remembered as the opening chapter in the political saga that ended her presidency. It also highlighted a new protest culture by those who were raised after the 1987 end of authoritarian rule, growing up with YouTube and K-pop.
“Ewha protests were the key to the impeachment,” said Lee Taek-gwang, a professor of cultural studies at South Korea’s Kyunghee University.
