South Korea's Park Geun-hye offers to resign if lawmakers agree on impeachment
| Nov. 29, 2016 at 8:52 AM 
South Korean President Park Geun-hye offered her resignation on Tuesday, on the condition lawmakers agree on her impeachment. File Pool Photo by Andrew Harrer/UPI
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SEOUL, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye has offered to resign if the country's parliament agrees she must step down.
But critics say the proposal would only cause delays.
Park, who has apologized twice for her ties to an influential acquaintance who has been linked to a corruption scandal, is immune from prosecution, CNN reportedTuesday.
The South Korean leader has not rejected the idea of being investigated, but her lawyers have told prosecutors on multiple occasions Park is too busy to meet with them, according to the report.
For five weeks, South Koreans have gathered on the weekends to stage mass protests calling for Park's resignation.
The most recent statement from Park appears to suggest she is making some concessions to the public.
But any vote in South Korea's National Assembly on a presidential impeachment needs a two-thirds majority in the 300-member parliament.
Park's ruling Saenuri party holds 125 seats and not all party lawmakers are ready to call for the president's impeachment.
Any motion for impeachment also needs to pass South Korea's constitutional court where judges have 180 days to decide the case.
Ingyu Oh, a sociology professor at Korea University in Seoul, told CNN "[Park] leaving everything to the National Assembly means 'please take forever to make a decision about my future'."
Park had said in her statement that she would "leave to parliament everything about my future including shortening of my term," according to the BBC.
But Park also said she did not want to leave a power vacuum.
If Park were suspended, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn would take over as interim head of state, according to the report.
