South Korea’s SEOUL Following his unsuccessful effort to implement martial law, which threw the East Asian democracy and important U.S. ally into pandemonium, South Korean parliament decided on Saturday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeolover.
With three abstentions and eight ballots declared invalid, the vote was 204 in favor and 85 against. The motion, which needed a two-thirds majority to pass, was put to a vote by all 300 members of the unicameral National Assembly.
Go enjoy the year-end celebrations, everyone. Following the passage of the proposal, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik said.
According to the motion, Yoon’s imposition of martial law was unlawful and unconstitutional since he failed to notify the National Assembly beforehand and there were no indications of a national emergency.
Members of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party (PPP), whose boycott of an earlier impeachment vote had led it to fail, supported the proposal. Despite controlling parliament, the opposition only has 192 seats, and in order to remove Yoon from office, at least eight PPP lawmakers have to back it.
The primary opposition Democratic Party’s floor leader, Park Chan-dae, declared the vote a victory for democracy and the people.
He answered, “This is just the beginning.” People participating in the martial law will be thoroughly investigated.
Yoon’s state duties were immediately suspended after the vote, and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo took over as interim president. The PPP had previously stated that it was collaborating with Han to oversee state affairs and that Yoon was already essentially suspended from duty.
Following the impeachment decision, Han told reporters, “I will do my best in the stable governance of our country.”
Because of his alleged involvement in the declaration of martial law, Han may possibly be impeached.
Yoon remained in the presidential home on Saturday, the presidential office confirmed to NBC News. He will stay there until the Constitutional Court renders a decision, which has six months to consider whether to sustain the impeachment motion.
Since he imposed martial law last week, there have been numerous calls for Yoon to resign. The brief decree, which prohibited any political action and controlled the news media, was rescinded by Yoon hours after parliament unanimously rejected it.
Former chief prosecutor Yoon, 63, is prohibited from traveling abroad while he is being investigated for potential rebellion charges. On Wednesday, police made an attempted attempt to raid his workplace, but security guards stopped them.
Yoon, who was elected to a single five-year term in 2022, has had difficulty implementing his policies in the opposition-controlled parliament, and the imposition of martial law has only made his popularity worse. According to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, Yoon’s approval rating dropped from 13% a week ago to a record low of 11%, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Even within his conservative PPP, there was growing support for Yoon’s impeachment.
Before lawmakers assembled for the vote, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon told reporters, “All we have to think of today is our country, South Korea, and the people of South Korea.”
The PPP officially opposes impeachment, according to newly elected PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong, a seasoned politician close to Yoon.
A sizable contingent of demonstrators braved the cold to gather in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, the capital, prior to the vote.
South Korea, having endured decades of military-authoritarian government, has been profoundly shocked by Yoon’s proclamation of martial law.
Park Geun-ha, a member of the Korean University Students Progressive Alliance, stated at a rally on Saturday before the vote that, in the hours following his announcement on December 3, “I thought if the country was not stable, my dream could be shattered at once, no matter how well I did on exams and prepared for my dreams.”
Therefore, we demand that President Yoon be arrested and impeached immediately.
Food was ordered in advance for the demonstrators by their supporters, many of whom were carrying K-pop light sticks. To help rallygoers warm up a bit, K-pop singer-songwriter IU announced that she would be supplying 200 pieces of bread, 100 rice cakes, 200 bowls of rice soup and oxtail soup, and 200 drinks.
A bus was offered to parents who needed a place to change their children’s diapers, and a special website assisted demonstrators in finding restrooms, free food, and beverages.
Others came together to support Yoon; Lee Gang-san, a pro-Yoon protester, reported that almost a million people attended his rally. That number could not be independently confirmed by NBC News.
He told NBC News over the phone, “We are afraid that the opposition will gain more power if President Yoon is impeached.”
The proclamation of martial law may have harmed the tenth-largest economy in the world, according to those South Koreans who were relieved by the impeachment decision.
According to Hyo-won Park, who runs a car rental company in Seoul, “I was so concerned that the president might do something so unexpected and unimagined again if he stayed on and ruin our business sentiments even further.”
South Koreans have risen up and fought to defend their democracy and human rights, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
According to Deputy Asia Director Simon Henderson, the impeachment procedures demonstrate the need of checks and balances in preventing abuses of power and bolstering the rule of law.
The declaration of martial law has already resulted in the arrest of several individuals, including the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the commissioner of the National Police Agency, and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
In a forceful speech on Thursday, Yoon accused the opposition of crippling the government to the point that he thought proclaiming martial law was his only option, despite his two apology statements for the concern his order caused the public. He pledged to fight until the end.
Democratic Party chairman Lee Jae-myung claimed on Friday that Yoon’s statement amounted to a declaration of war on the populace.
Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential race, stated that impeachment is the quickest and most reliable means to end the situation.
History will remember and document your decision, he said, urging PPP legislators to support the second impeachment move.
Lee also expressed gratitude to the US and its allies for their unwavering support of democracy in South Korea, which is home to almost 30,000 US troops.
On Friday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul assured lawmakers that he would do all in his power to preserve the alliance between South Korea and the United States and to rebuild confidence in international ties.
According to Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies professor at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, Yoon’s impeachment does not mean that South Korea’s political unrest will cease.
“It’s not even the beginning of the end,” he added, adding that a new president will eventually be elected.
With one conviction on appeal and multiple more decisions pending that might bar him from office, Lee, who is expected to win an election to succeed Yoon, is also in legal limbo, according to Easley.
Communist-controlledAfter not covering the declaration of martial law for a week, North Korea has capitalized on the political unrest in the South, emphasizing demonstrations calling for the overthrow of the puppet Yoon Suk Yeol regime in a second day of official media coverage Thursday. Since the 1950–53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, the two Koreas are still officially at war.
When he imposed martial law, Yoon, who takes a tougher stance on North Korea than his Democratic predecessor, accused the opposition of having sympathy for the nuclear-armed state without offering any proof.
Without providing any proof, Yoon claimed in his speech on Thursday that North Korea had breached South Korea’s National Election Commission last year, revealing security flaws that he claimed called into question the validity of the results of the April parliamentary election, which was won handily by the liberal opposition.
The commission’s secretary general, Kim Yong-bin, stated on Friday that all votes are cast using paper ballots and that there was no proof of election fraud or system hacking.
He asserted that our system makes electoral fraud impossible.
Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong, while Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.
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