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Park Geun-hye

SEOUL. – South Korea’s Constitutional Court removed President Park Geun-hye from office yesterday over a graft scandal involving the country’s conglomerates at a time of rising tensions with North Korea and China.

The ruling sparked protests from hundreds of her supporters, two of whom were killed in clashes with police outside the court.

Park becomes South Korea’s first democratically-elected leader to be forced from office, capping months of paralysis and turmoil over a corruption scandal that also landed the head of the Samsung conglomerate in jail.

A snap presidential election will be held within 60 days.

She did not appear in court and a spokesman said she would not be making any comment nor would she leave the presidential Blue House residence yesterday.

“For now, Park is not leaving the Blue House today (yesterday),” Blue House spokesman Kim Dong Jo told Reuters.

Park was stripped of her powers after parliament voted to impeach her but has remained in the president’s official compound.

The court’s acting chief judge, Lee Jung-mi, said Park had violated the constitution and law “throughout her term”, and despite the objections of parliament and the media, she had concealed the truth and cracked down on critics. – Reuters.