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08-12-2024
SEOUL: South Korean lawmakers on Saturday began meeting to vote on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, as protests grew nationwide calling for his removal.
They gathered in the National Assembly hours after Yoon issued a public apology over the move, saying he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promising not to make another attempt to impose martial law.
In a brief televised address, Yoon said he would leave it to his party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.”
“The declaration of this martial law was made out of my desperation. But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot,” Yoon said.
Since taking office in 2022, Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda through an opposition-controlled parliament and grappled with low approval ratings amid scandals involving himself and his wife. In his martial law announcement on Tuesday night, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.”
It isn’t immediately clear whether the motion to impeach Yoon will get the two-thirds support needed to pass. The opposition parties that jointly brought the impeachment motion control 192 of the legislature’s 300 seats, meaning they need at least eight additional votes from Yoon’s People Power Party.
That appeared more likely after the chair of Yoon’s party called for his removal on Friday, but the party remained formally opposed to impeachment.
Lawmakers on Saturday first voted on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate stock price manipulation allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife. Some lawmakers from Yoon’s party were seen leaving the hall after that vote, triggering angry shouts from opposition lawmakers.
If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. If he is removed, an election to replace him must take place within 60 days.
The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly-thought-out stunt has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners, including neighboring Japan and Seoul’s top ally the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.
Tuesday night saw Special Forces troops encircling the parliament building and army helicopters hovering over it, but the military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn the decree, forcing Yoon to lift it before daybreak Wednesday. The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea.
Meanwhile, all but one of South Korea’s party MPs left parliament ahead of a vote on whether to impeach embattled president Yoon Suk Yeol.
That means the bill is short of the 200 members required to pass it.
Since the boycott, two other members of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) have returned to the chamber but the opposition needs eight of them to vote for the bill in order for it to pass.
Tens of thousands of people have gathered outside South Korea’s National Assembly calling for Yoon’s removal
Earlier on Saturday, Yoon apologized for declaring martial law on Tuesday, and said he would not do it again. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
