By CHOE SANG-HUNOCT. 24, 2016
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President Park Geun-hye of South Korea at the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday. She wants to rewrite the country’s Constitution for the first time since changes in 1987 that ended decades of dictatorship. Credit Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
SEOUL, South Korea — President Park Geun-hye proposed revising the Constitution on Monday, calling South Korea’s single-term restriction on presidents outdated. Her initiative is the first serious attempt to rewrite the country’s Constitution since it was last amended in 1987 to end decades of military dictatorship.
Opposition leaders immediately accused Ms. Park of making the surprise proposal to divert attention from a growing scandal that involved some of her close associates and helped push her approval ratings to a record low. But they did not immediately reject the idea of amending the Constitution.
During a nationally televised speech, Ms. Park cited recent surveys in which 70 percent of respondents voiced frustration with deeply polarized domestic politics and supported a constitutional revision as a potential remedy. Ms. Park said she hoped that the next government would be formed under a new constitution and asked rival parties to start discussing a draft revision.
Under the Constitution, Ms. Park is limited to a single five-year term that ends in February 2018. She is barred from seeking re-election even if the Constitution is changed to allow a second term.
Constitutional revision requires approval by two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly and then majority support in a referendum. Ms. Park’s governing party, Saenuri, controls only 122 seats in the assembly. But some opposition lawmakers have also called for a revision. Some want the current presidential system to be replaced with a parliamentary government.
During her election campaign in 2012, Ms. Park said she would try to revise the Constitution to allow the president to seek a second term.
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But until now, she has repeatedly opposed discussing a possible amendment. She previously said it would only create a political “black hole” that would disrupt the government’s efforts to rejuvenate a slowing economy.
Uncertainty over the economy has deepened in recent months in the wake of rising unemployment and the bankruptcy of Hanjin, a major shipping company, as well as financial troubles among the country’s major shipbuilders.
But on Monday, Ms. Park said she realized that under the current Constitution, in which governments change hands every five years, “it is difficult to maintain continuance in policy,” especially when dealing with North Korea. The South’s policy has shifted widely depending on who is in power. Progressives have tended to favor dialogue in efforts to end the North’s development of nuclear weapons, while conservatives have emphasized sanctions.
Park Jie-won, an opposition leader, accused Ms. Park of creating a “black hole” to distract public anger from the government’s scandals. Choo Mi-ae, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, demanded that Ms. Park keep herself from any discussion of a constitutional revision.
Ms. Park’s approval ratings plummeted to 25 percent last week, the lowest since she took office in early 2013, as she grappled with scandals involving her associates, including a woman named Choi Soon-sil. Ms. Choi is a daughter of the late religious figure Choi Tae-min, whose close ties with Ms. Park have spawned lurid rumors.
For weeks, the news media has described Ms. Choi as a Rasputin-like figure who used her ties with Ms. Park and Ahn Chong-bum, one of her top presidential aides, to force big businesses to donate millions of dollars each to foundations she was believed to control. Ms. Choi was also accused of forcing Ewha Womans University to change its regulations to give preferential treatment to her daughter.
The president of the university resigned last week during student protests. Prosecutors were looking into the accusations after Ms. Park called for an investigation. But Ms. Park and Mr. Ahn have denied involvement in the scandal.
Ms. Choi could not be reached for comment. News outlets reported that she and her daughter were staying in Germany, where they recently bought several houses.
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