South Korea's National Assembly voted by a huge margin Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye over her role in a corruption and influence-peddling scandal, forcing her to immediately hand over the running of the country to a caretaker prime minister.
But despite the clear condemnation from both politicians and the general public, Park signaled that she would not be standing down but would wait with a "calm and clear mind" while the conservative-leaning Constitutional Court decided whether or not to uphold the impeachment motion.
That means that South Korea could be in for a long period of paralysis. The court now has six months to rule, creating a power vacuum in South Korea at the same time as the United States goes through its own presidential transition.
A total of 234 lawmakers voted in favor of the impeachment motion Friday, well beyond the two-thirds majority, or 200 votes, that proponents of impeachment needed to oust the president. That meant dozens of lawmakers from Park's conservative Saenuri party crossed the aisle to vote with the 171 opposition and independent lawmakers pushing for impeachment.
People gathered in front of the National Assembly chanted "We won, we won!" after the voting results came out, while others danced and waved South Korean flags.
"I heard grave voices of the people and the National Assembly, and I sincerely hope this chaotic situation will be resolved soon," Park told a meeting of her Cabinet convened shortly after the impeachment vote. "I sincerely apologize to the people for causing such widespread chaos while our national security situation and the economy are going through a difficult time," she said, citing everything from bird flu to the challenge the cold winter would pose to the poor.
But the president, who last week said she would stand down if the assembly demanded it, reverted to her previous defiant stance.
"I will respond to the procedure of the Constitutional Court and the special prosecutors' investigation with a calm and clear mind," she told her ministers, according to remarks distributed by her office, urging them to get back to work and minimize disruption to the country while the court deliberates.
Meantime, Park's duties will fall to prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, a political independent and former justice minister.
The vote was a landslide for the forces that want to impeach Park. Only 56 lawmakers in the 300-seat assembly voted against ousting her.
"This result exceeded our expectations. It means the ruling Saenuri party members have taken the citizens' demands very seriously," said Park Young-sun, a representative in the main opposition Minjoo, or Democratic, party. "Now the National Assembly needs to calm down and try to take this opportunity to rebuild the nation," she said.
The scandal centers on allegations that the famously aloof Park - the country's first female president and daughter of military strongman Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s - took advice from a secret confidante on a wide variety of topics, including North Korean policy and her wardrobe.
Prosecutors said that the confidante, Choi Soon-sil, a lifelong friend and daughter of a shadowy cult leader, used that relationship to enrich herself by at least $70 million and gain advantages for her family. Choi has been indicted on charges, including abuse of power and extortion, and is in detention.
Prosecutors have said the president appeared to have been an accomplice and want to question her about her role in the case, but she has refused. She is immune from prosecution while president but could be charged once she leaves office.
The public anger over the case is palpable. Hundreds of thousands have been demonstrating in central Seoul for weeks, calling on Park to step down, her approval ratings have fallen to 5 percent. Demonstrators massed outside the National Assembly Friday in support of the impeachment motion and another protest is scheduled for this Saturday.
Representatives in Park's conservative Saenuri party had no choice but to listen to the people and support the impeachment motion, said Kim Dong-choon, professor of social sciences at Sungkonghoe University.
But the government could now find itself hamstrung by the vote, Kim said. "Most of the Cabinet members have been appointed by Park so their legitimacy will be questioned by this impeachment. The government won't be able to make important policy decisions and the power will shift to the National Assembly."
Park is be only the second president to be impeached since South Korea democratized in 1987. Roh Moo-hyun, a progressive, was impeached in 2004 for minor election law violations but, after deliberating for two months, the Constitutional Court overturned the motion. While it found that Roh had indeed breached the law, it ruled that the charges were not serious enough to warrant his removal.
The conservative-leaning court now has 180 days to consider Park's case, but experts doubt it will take that long.
"As this is not a criminal court, one or two serious violations can justify Park's dismissal," said Chung Tae-ho, a law professor and expert on the constitution at Kyunghee University. "The gravity of this case is expected to put pressure on the court to rule sooner than later as it is important to remove uncertainty from the nation."
But the process could still be complicated. Two justices are set to resign within the first three months of the year and analysts think it unlikely that the prime minister would act to replace them during a time of limbo. That would mean six of the remaining seven judges would have to vote in favor of upholding the motion.
Hwang, the prime minister, has been caught up in the furor engulfing the president.
As the scandal widened, Park last month said she would replace Hwang with a senior official from former progressive president Roh's administration, a move intended to both clear the decks and to placate the left-wing opposition parties. But they were instead incensed for not been consulted and Park was forced to withdraw her nominee, meaning Hwang has continued in his position.
Kweon Seong-dong, chairman of the judiciary committee in the National Assembly, said that how soon the court could rule would depend on whether it decided to proceed on the facts it already has, or wait for prosecutors and an independent counsel to finish their investigations.
"If the court considers there are enough reasons for the president to be impeached based on the current investigation findings, the court can rule in favor of upholding the impeachment motion," he said. "But if the court decides to consider all of the violations, then it will have to deliberate on all of them."
Kweon, a Saenuri party lawmaker, did not think the landslide vote in the assembly would have an effect on the court, although he said the huge outpouring of public opinion on the scandal could influence the judges.