President Park’s surprise visit to the National Assembly on Tuesday was filled with moments of hostility, indicative of the predicament she faces.

When she arrived at around 10:30 a.m., everything seemed to be business as usual.

The Assembly’s Secretary-General Woo Yoon-keun and the governing Saenuri Party’s floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk were among the first to greet her.

Clad in a red jacket and black trousers, Park smiled as she was escorted into the main assembly hall, leading an impressive entourage.

Inside the Assembly, however, the mood was drastically different. Dozens of opposition lawmakers and their aides held up placards and chanted slogans, demanding her resignation.

No Saenuri lawmaker was there to welcome the president. Reps. Cho Won-jin, Min Kyung-wook and Ju Sang-ook showed up at the elevator near the entrance hall, but turned back after seeing the crowd of protestors.

“It is an order from the people: Park Geun-hye must stay away from state affairs,” read the placards held up by lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, including Reps. Sul Hoon and Woo Won-shik.

Another banner, carried by first-termer Rep. Chae Yi-bae and other members of the runner-up opposition People’s Party, read: “The president should step down.”

Six lawmakers from the minor Justice Party, including its leader Rep. Shim Sang-jeung, held a sign reading, “Resignation for Park.”

“Stop giving a hard time to the people. Please resign,” a group of staffers from the Democratic Party shouted.

The words “resignation” reverberated across the hallway until the president took the elevator to meet Speaker Chung Sye-kyun.

Park, not losing her smile despite the palpable hostility, made no comment or gestures.

After a 13-minute one-on-one meeting with Speaker Chung, hurriedly arranged to salvage her embattled presidency, Park faced the same protestors as she made her way out of the building. They continued to chant “resignation for Park” until well after she left.

No Saenuri lawmakers were there to send her off.

It was a far cry from her last visit to the Assembly on Oct. 24, when she dropped a political bomb -- a proposal to revise the Constitution and modify the country’s single-term, five-year presidency.

Refusing to be a lame-duck in her fourth year in office, she had thrust herself into the center of political talk.

Then, not only did Saenuri lawmakers line up to greet and escort her in and out of the Assembly, some loyalists had given her a standing ovation during her speech.

The reason for Park’s fall from grace in just over two weeks’ time -- her misguided reliance on embattled friend Choi Soon-sil. 


By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)