South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol apologized on Saturday for causing anxiety to the public due to his short-lived attempt. impose martial law earlier this week, hours before Congress voted to impeach him.
In a short televised address on Saturday morning, Yin said he would not shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and pledged not to try to reimpose it. He said he would leave it to conservative parties to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including issues related to my term in office.”
South Korean parliamentarians are scheduled to vote on impeaching the president later Saturday as protests calling for his removal from office grow across the country.
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It is unclear at this point whether the motion submitted by opposition members will be able to secure the two-thirds majority needed to impeach Yoon. But on Friday, the leader of Yun’s own party said he was unfit for the presidency and could take more extreme action, including a new attempt to impose martial law, suspending his constitutional powers. The possibility of this seems to have increased in response to the request.
Impeachment of Yoon requires the support of 200 of the 300 members of the National Assembly. The opposition parties that jointly submitted the impeachment motion have a total of 192 seats.
In other words, at least eight votes from Yun’s People’s Power Party are needed. On Wednesday, 18 PPP lawmakers voted unanimously 190-0 to repeal martial law, less than three hours after Mr. Yun announced the measure on television, and the opposition-controlled parliament voted 190-0 to abolish martial law. He called it a “den of criminals” that was bringing national politics to a standstill. The vote took place as hundreds of heavily armed troops surrounded parliament in an attempt to disrupt the vote and in some cases arrest key politicians.
Parliament announced it would meet on Saturday at 5pm local time. First, they will vote on a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of influence over Yun’s wife, and then vote on his impeachment.
The chaos resulting from Mr. Yoon’s bizarre and ill-considered actions has paralyzed South Korean politics, leaving neighboring Japan and South Korea’s largest democracies facing a political crisis. It sparked alarm among major diplomatic partners, including the ally the United States. There is a possibility that he will be deprived of his leadership position.
Opposition members argue that Yun’s declaration of martial law amounted to a self-inflicted coup d’état and that he has drafted an impeachment motion on charges of sedition.
The Democratic Progressive Party decided to oppose impeachment at a meeting of its members, despite the pleas of leader Han Dong-hoon, who is not a lawmaker and does not have the right to vote.
After Friday’s party meeting, Mr. Han stressed the need to immediately end Mr. Yoon’s presidential duties and powers, saying, “This could put the Republic of Korea and its people at great risk.”
Han said he received information that during the brief period of martial law, Yun ordered the defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-national activities.” .
Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door conference that after martial law was imposed, Yoon called him and ordered him to assist the National Defense Counterintelligence Force in arresting key politicians. Ta. According to Kim Byung-gi, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting, the politicians targeted included Han, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik.
The Ministry of Defense announced that it had suspended Yeo In-hyun, the defense counterintelligence commander, who Han claimed had received orders from Yun to detain politicians. The ministry also suspended Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo and Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jeong-geun for their involvement in the enforcement of martial law.
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is accused of encouraging Yoon to impose martial law, has been banned from traveling and is being investigated by prosecutors on suspicion of sedition.
Vice Minister of Defense Kim Son-ho, who took over as acting defense minister after Yoon accepted Kim Young-hyun’s resignation on Thursday, told Congress that it was Kim Young-hyun who ordered the dispatch of troops to the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law. I testified in
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