President Park Geun-hye was removed from office after the Constitutional Court on Friday upheld a vote by lawmakers to impeach her. Ever since the founding of the country in 1948, the political situation in the Republic of Korea (ROK) has been turbulent. Cheong Wa Dae, known as the presidential Blue House, seems to be a “cursed” place. Park is not a single case, over half of all the presidents of this peninsula country ended their terms in misery. 

President Rhee Syngman, founder of the ROK, was forced to resign after 12 years’ reign. He then went into exile to Hawaii and passed away there in 1965. His successor, Park Chung-Hee, who is President Park Geun-hye’s father, has always been a controversial political figure. He created the Hanjiang Miracle which made ROK one of the four Asian dragons with rapid economic development in the 1960s. But at the same time he was criticized for his ruthless dictatorship. In 1979, Park Chung-Hee was assassinated by his own minister of Central Intelligence Department, which was a shock to ROK as well as to the whole world. 

The following presidents were Chon Du-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo, whose terms in office went smoothly, but their post-presidential lives were quite the opposite. Both of them were arrested for corruption and spent time behind the bars until they were given amnesty. Another president with a tragic ending was Roh Moo-hyun, who was tortured by the scandal of his relatives’ bribery and committed suicide after his term of office. He was also the first president to be impeached in ROK presidential history. 

After Park Geun-hye’s removal from office, a new presidential election will be held by May 9 at the latest. The world is looking forward to seeing who is going to be the new tenant of the presidential Blue House - and to seeing whether he or she can break the “curse” and finish the term of office safe and sound.