& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

S Korean president Roh impeached

Prime minister takes over as interim head of state

AFP, Seoul
South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun was suspended from office Friday in an unprecedented parliamentary impeachment vote that triggered panic in financial markets and deepened political turmoil ahead of next month's general elections.
Opposition lawmakers secured 193 votes to two to suspend Roh over violations of election rules, corruption and incompetence, the parliamentary speaker announced.
It is the first time in South
Korea's history that a leader has been impeached.
Roh, 57, was immediately suspended from office and Prime Minister Goh Kun took over as interim president.
The focus now switches to the Constitutional Court which will have the final word on the impeachment saga.
The nine justices of the court must rule within six months by a majority of at least six on whether to uphold the impeachment vote. There was no immediate indication of when the court may convene.
Roh, who has lurched from one crisis to another during his 13 months in power, said he expected to be restored to office by the legal ruling.
"I expect the Constitutional Court to make a legal judgement which will be different from a political one," he said in his first reaction to the vote. "I expect that the final decision will be different."
"I hope that within a few months, I will be able to carry on my job as president. I will neither get frustrated nor give up."
FROM PAGE 1
Goh, an experienced administrator, urged the government to function "without wavering" to overcome national difficulties.
News of the impeachment sent South Korea's stock market plunging and added to the woes of a country grappling with the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea and a faltering economy.
Seoul's main index slumped nearly five percent in morning trading.
"It's panic-driven selling, with investors horrified by the unprecedented passage of impeachment against President Roh," Good Morning Shinhan Securities dealer Hahn Ki-Shin said.
A total of only 195 lawmakers took part in the unprecedented vote, with the 47-member Uri Party loyal to Roh boycotting the poll and chanting anti-impeachment slogans.
Roh loyalists later resigned from parliament en masse and said the vote was a coup d'etat against the people.
"The opposition has given birth to a state of confrontation among the people, a state of chaos and now civil war," the party said in a statement.
Earlier, violence broke out in the chamber as the Roh supporters scuffled with security guards and opposition lawmakers as they tried to prevent the vote from taking place. They were dragged one-by-one from the speaker's podium to allow voting to get underway.
The two main opposition parties, the Grand National Party (GNP), which controls parliament, and the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), needed a two thirds majority of the 271 seat in parliament to impeach Roh for refusing to apologize for illegally trying to influence the outcome of the April
15 parliamentary election.
Roh was reprimanded last week by the National Election Commission for trying to influence the outcome of the elections in favour of the Uri Party. But the NEC took no further action, judging the violation to be minor.
The reformist president apologized to his nation in a statement earlier Friday and took responsibility for political turmoil gripping the country.
But he fell short of meeting opposition demands for an outright apology for his illegal electioneering.
"Apart from who did what wrong, I feel deeply sorry before the people that I have let the situation become so confrontational and impeachment is being mentioned," Roh said.
GNP deputy spokesman Eun Jin-Su said Roh's latest comments were too little too late.
"It is not an apology when you start saying 'apart from who did what wrong'," he said.
After the vote, police and about 500 angry pro-Roh demonstators faced off outside the National Assembly where one Roh supporter set himself on fire late Thursday.
South Korea's new interim leader Goh immediately called an emergency meeting of foreign, defence, and national security related ministers. Finance Minister Lee Hun-Jai also held an emergency meeting of policy makers.
Reformist Roh has been at loggerheads with the opposition-dominated parliament which has frustrated his programme since he took office in February 2003.
His popular support has slipped to under 30 percent amid a widening campaign finance scandal that has tainted all political parties.