President Yoon Suk Yeol survived an impeachment motion tabled against him over the weekend, just a few days after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law.

The embattled leader has since apologised for what opposition parties decried as an abuse of power, while the ruling People Power Party called on Yoon to resign, despite its MPs boycotting Saturday’s impeachment vote.

The main opposition Democratic Party has warned that it would hold new waves of protests, with another impeachment vote scheduled on December 14.

Meanwhile, authorities arrested former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun on Sunday over his alleged role in the turmoil, while President Yoon could face potential charges of insurrection and abuse of power.

Are the country’s democratic institutions strong enough to withstand this unprecedented political crisis? And what’s next? We’ll ask the experts.

In the last part of the programme, we speak to an epidemiologist, as scientists fear that the H5N1 bird flu could turn into a pandemic.


9:05am-9:45am: Political turmoil in South Korea

9:05am-9:45am: Edmund Cheng, Professor at the Department of Public and International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong

9:05am-9:45am: Joung W Hwang, Seoul-based lawyer and former Law Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

9:30am-9:45am: Leonid Petrov, Senior Lecturer, Dean (Business & Management) International College of Management Sydney and Visiting Fellow (Korean Studies) School of Culture, History and Language College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University


9:45am-10:00am: H5N1 bird flu pandemic concerns

9:45am-10:00am: Benjamin Cowling, Chair Professor of Epidemiology and Head, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong