United State’s reaction to President Park’s oust

**Henry** (0:27)
It was a unanimous constitutional court decision, 8 to nothing, voting for the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. Her reign ends as leader of this country, and there has been a lot of reaction, not just here in Korea, but all over the world. The US State Department issuing a statement very shortly after the verdict was read out, essentially saying, if I paraphrase here, that the United States respects the will of the Korean people, and they hope to forge a close relationship with the next Korean president, and that the security alliance is as strong as ever. To give us more analysis, we are very pleased to have joining us a senior fellow at the East Asia Policy Center at the Brookings Institution, also a former US diplomat and former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US State Department, Evans JR. Revere. Hello.

**Evans J. R. Revere** (1:22)
Hello, how are you, Henry?

**Henry** (1:24)
I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us, sir. As far as the US is concerned, what has generally been the opinion of what this political saga that's been going on in South Korea?

**Evans J. R. Revere** (1:38)
I think the media and most of the pundits and experts have been following this fairly closely and have, as this drama has unfolded over the last several months, have been watching it with a combination of concern and surprise. I think no one expected, quite frankly, as this situation began to unfold, that it would get as bad as it did. But in fact, it did. And so I think folks are now starting to reflect on the importance of it all and the future-oriented significance of it all, even as they still are trying to recover from watching this tragedy unfold before our eyes over the last several months.

**Henry** (2:26)
And I know you have been a long-time expert of the region and South Korea, and you've seen sort of these events that have unfolded in recent years. And I just wanted to get, from an American perspective, if you recall these candlelight protests that occurred after the death of the two middle school girls because of a US tank, or this protest against the US beef imports. There is a definite differentiation, right, among the policy analysts in the US as to the concerns over the protests that have occurred right now with these allegations against the current president and what we've seen before.

**Evans J. R. Revere** (3:07)
Yeah, I was actually in Seoul for all of the events that you've just described, and actually arrived in Seoul on the evening of a couple of the more recent protests, so I've had a chance to observe them all. I think with the unfortunate exception of the two deaths that occurred just a few hours ago in Seoul, these protests, the more recent ones, have been much more peaceful. There have been a number of minor confrontations, but these have been a lot more peaceful. But if you go back to the history of Korean politics and Korean movements and Korean protests, they're sort of in keeping with a pattern of activism and popular concern being expressed on the streets, sometimes in very emotional ways. That's, I think, the nature of Korean politics and the nature of Korean protest.

**Henry** (4:02)
Obviously, South Korea does need to get its house in order as far as trying to come to some kind of political closure. There will be early presidential elections. It is very possible that perhaps a more progressive candidate becomes the next president. From the US perspective, does that change the equation of how to craft foreign policy towards Korea, maybe towards the entire Korean Peninsula?

**Evans J. R. Revere** (4:29)
Well, I think it's a bit too early to prejudge the outcome of any electoral process.
And it's certainly too early to prejudge what the policies of the next Korean government will be once the next president is elected in a couple of months' time. But I think it's more important to step back and look at the overall strategic environment that we're operating in. I think that's the critical question right now. And that environment is pretty clear. We have a rising North Korean threat, not only a threat directed against the Republic of Korea with missiles and as well as its conventional weapons and nuclear weapons. But that threat very specifically now is being demonstrated, or the potential for that threat is being demonstrated against Japan, against the US-Japan alliance and against the United States itself through the new capabilities that the North Koreans are testing and deploying or threatening to test and deploy. And so, as you look at that, I think any Korean government is going to have to look at that very, very seriously as the previous government or current government have, and develop the appropriate policies. The trend line of that threat is getting more serious and more intense. And I think that is going to shape certainly US policies more than anything else, just as it has shaped the policies of the current government and other governments in the region. And so, that's the environment into which the next Korean government regardless of its political stripe is going to have to operate in.