South Korean president apologizes for declaring martial law with possible impeachment vote looming
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol apologized on Saturday for his brief attempt to cause public anxiety impose martial law Earlier this week, he was hours away from a parliamentary vote to impeach him.
In a brief televised address on Saturday morning, Yoon said he would not evade legal or political responsibility for the statement and promised not to try again to implement it. He said he would leave it to his conservative party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including issues related to my tenure”.
South Korean lawmakers will vote to impeach the president later on Saturday as protests calling for his resignation spread across the country.
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It is unclear whether the motion submitted by opposition lawmakers will receive the two-thirds majority needed to impeach Yoon. But that appears more likely after Yoon’s party leaders on Friday called for a suspension of his constitutional powers, saying he was unfit to serve as president and capable of more extreme action, including renewed attempts to impose martial law.
Impeaching Yin requires the support of 200 of the 300 members of the National Assembly. The opposition parties that jointly proposed the impeachment motion have a total of 192 seats.
That means they need at least eight votes from Yun’s People’s Power Party. Eighteen members of the People’s Party took part in the vote on Wednesday, unanimously 190-0 to lift martial law less than three hours after Yun announced it on television, calling the opposition-controlled parliament “criminals mired in national affairs.” nest”. The vote took place as hundreds of heavily armed troops surrounded the National Assembly in an attempt to disrupt the vote and potentially detain key politicians.
Parliament said Saturday it would meet at 5 p.m. local time. It will first vote on a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate influence-peddling allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife, and then vote on Yoon’s impeachment case.
Yoon’s bizarre and ill-conceived move paralyzed South Korean politics and alarmed key diplomatic partners including neighboring Japan and Seoul’s top ally, the United States, as one of Asia’s most powerful democracies faces a A political crisis could topple its leaders.
Opposition lawmakers claimed Yin’s martial law order amounted to a self-coup and drafted an impeachment motion around the rebellion charges.
The People’s Party decided to oppose impeachment at a parliamentary meeting despite requests from party leader Han Dong-hoon, who is not a member of the House of Representatives and does not have the right to vote.
After a party meeting on Friday, Han Kuo-yu stressed the need to quickly suspend Yun Zheng’s presidential duties and powers, saying he “could put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger.”
Han said he received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law, Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key political figures on charges of “anti-national activities.”
Hong Jang-won, the first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon called and ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence agency detain important politicians after martial law was imposed. Kim Byung-ki, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting, said the targeted politicians included Han Kuo-yu, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik.
The Defense Ministry said it had suspended defense counterintelligence commander Yeo In-hyung, and Han claimed he had received orders from Yun to detain politicians. The Ministry of National Defense also suspended Lee Jin-woo, commander of the Capital Defense Command, and Kwak Jong-geun, commander of the Special Operations Command, for their involvement in the implementation of martial law.
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is accused of advising Yoon to impose martial law, has been slapped with a travel ban and faces prosecutors’ investigation over rebellion charges.
On Thursday, after Yoon Eun-hye accepted Kim Yong-hyun’s resignation, Deputy Defense Minister Kim Sun-ho, who served as acting defense minister, testified to the National Assembly that it was Kim Yong-hyun who ordered the deployment of troops to the National Assembly after Yoon Eun-hye imposed martial law.
