Politics of South Korea

Executive branch

The head of state is the president, who is elected by direct popular vote for a single five-year^[2] term. The president is Commander-in-Chief of the armed force of South Korea and enjoys considerable executive powers.

The president appoints the prime minister with approval of the National Assembly, as well as appointing and presiding over the State Council of chief ministers as the head of government. On 12 March 2004, the executive power of then president Roh Moo-hyun was suspended when the Assembly voted to impeach him and Prime Minister Goh Kun became an Acting President. On 14 May 2004, the Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment decision made by the Assembly and Roh was reinstated.

On 10 March 2017, Park Geun-hye became the first president to be removed by the Constitutional Court after impeachment by the National Assembly. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn temporarily served as an acting president between the suspension of Park since 9 December 2016 until the next presidential election, which was held in May 2017. On 9 May 2017, Moon Jae-in became the 19th president of South Korea, replacing acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn.

Legislative branch

National Assembly of South Korea in Seoul

The National Assembly (국회, 國會, gukhoe) has 300 members, elected for a four-year term, 253 members in single-seat constituencies and 47 members by proportional representation. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is the largest party in the Assembly.

Judicial branch

The South Korean judiciary is independent of the other two branches. The highest judiciary body is the Supreme Court, whose justices are appointed by the president with the consent of the National Assembly. In addition, the Constitutional Court oversees questions of constitutionality. South Korea has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

Political nature

South Korea's political history has always been prone to splits from and merges with other parties. One reason is that there is greater empathise around the 'politics of the person' and rather than party, therefore party loyalty is not strong when disagreements occur. The graph below illustrates the extent of the political volatility within the last 10 years alone. These splits were intensified after the 2016 South Korean political scandal.

This graph traces the recent origins of all six main political parties currently in the Republic of Korea. All of which have either split from or merged with other parties in the last four years. They have emerged from four main ideological camps, from Left to Right: Progressive (socialist), liberal, centrist, and conservative.

Latest elections

 Summary of the 13 April 2016 South Korean National Assembly election results^[3][4]

Party		Constituency				Party list				Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Democratic Party of Korea (더불어민주당) (DPK) 1	8,881,369	37.0	110	4	6,069,744	25.5	13	8	123	4
	Saenuri Party (새누리당) (SP) 2	9,200,690	38.3	105	25	7,960,272	33.5	17	10	122	35
	People's Party (국민의당) (PP)	3,565,451	14.9	25	(new)	6,355,572	26.7	13	(new)	38	(new)
	Justice Party (정의당) (JP) 3	395,357	1.6	2	2	1,719,891	7.2	4	4	6	6
	Christian Liberal Party (기독자유당) (CLP)	1,376	0.0	0	(new)	626,853	2.6	0	(new)	0	(new)
	Minjoo Party (민주당) (MP) 4	17,034	0.1	0	(new)	209,872	0.9	0	(new)	0	(new)
Other parties		257,879	1.1	0		818,773	3.4	0		0
Independents		1,683,264	7.0	11	8	N/A				11	8
Total		24,002,420	100.0	253	7	23,760,977	100	47	7	300
Turnout: 58.0%[5]

Seat changes are compared to previous election, not the outgoing Assembly
¹ Comparison based on 2012 Democratic United Party result
² Comparison includes members elected in 2012 for the Liberty Forward Party
³ Comparison based on 2012 Unified Progressive Party result
⁴ Non-parliamentary grouping: not to be confused with the larger Minjoo Party of Korea, more usually referred to as the Minjoo Party