Martial Law debacle: South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday in an extraordinary rebuke that came about after his own ruling party turn on him after he declined after his failed martial law bid.
This is the second time in under a decade that a South Korean leader has been impeached in office and means that Yoon is deprived of performing his duties until his case’s definitive resolution by South Korea’s Constitutional Court.
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After the vote Yoon said that while he will now pause, “I’ll stop for now but The future that I walked with the people for the past two years should not end.”
South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol impeached by parliament
In a statement which was released to the country’s presidential office, he said, “I will not give up.”
“With all the encouragement and support for me in mind, I will do my best until the last moment for the nation,” he added.
South korea’s PM
South Korea’s PM Han Duck-soo, who will become acting president under South Korean law said that he will “spend my energy and strength in ensuring a stable running of the country.”
Democratic Party’ s South Korea lawmaker Kang Sun-woo said on Saturday that the “great democracy of South Korea will survive and will be born again” after impeachment.
The dramatic decision is the last word in a sensational political crisis after the president has brief the martial law in the state on December 3 though sending soldiers to the parliament where lawmakers fended off troops to vote against the decree.
This gamble only boomeranged for Yoon as many in the vibrant democratic country of South Korea demanded his ouster.
A week ago, the opposition aimed for his impeachment – but Yoon managed to escape it after members of the ruling People Power Party boycotted the vote stating they expected the president to step down voluntarily.
Yoon then compounded his mistake – making a provocative speech on Thursday, where he justified his martial law move; ridiculed the opposition; asserted that he was trying to save the country; and promised to “stand with the people till the very end.”
However, the leader of Yoon’s party the previous day stepped down his support to the president and supported impeachment as the last resort saying it is the only way ‘to defend democracy’, urging lawmakers to ‘vote their conscience’.
Many people took to the outdoors in Seoul on Saturday to demand Yoon step down ahead of the vote, which was approved by 204 members with 85 voting against it.
At the same time, thousands of the president’s supporters rallied in downtown Seoul also, demonstrating and waving US and South Korean flags and chanting in support of Yoon, the under-pressure president.
Yoon has been immediately suspended of his powers, and now his fate is up to the Constitutional Court – one of South Korea’s highest legal authorities – a process which can take up to six months.
If the move is intact, he will be the second South Korean president to be removed from power through impeachment after Park Geun-hye, the first woman president of the country.
The new acting president is Han Duck-soo who also has his political troubles, and he is under investigation for his part in martial law determination and furthering political instability in the following weeks.
who is the president of south korea ?
Yoon is a former prosecutor and an ultra-conservative, who has had a very challenging time in the office for the last two years, struggling with worse approval ratings compared to his predecessor Park, as well as controversies linked to his wife and the appointments to the prosecutor’s chief position.
Since being sworn in as president in early 2022 however he also had to contend with an opposition-led parliament – which despite his efforts to reduce taxes on businesses and deregulate the markets, the members of his main political adversaries in the Democratic Party blocked laws and unseated important members of his government and hindered a budget bill.
His administration tackled what he called “fake news” through police and prosecutors’ siege of media stations, MBC, and JTBC and journalists’ houses.
Yoon said he had no choice but to take a daring power move because political paralysis angered him to make an unexpected move even most of his party supporters and many of military commanders.
Martial Law debacle: Police rampage and acts of high treason
During his late night announcement of martial law,Yoon claimed opposition as engaging in ‘anti-state deeds’ of allegedly conspiring with North Korea -something the opponents strongly deny. He also claims that his act was aimed at ending a political stalemate in the country’s parliament.
But the reaction was rather shock and anger across the country, which still remembers the brutality of the martial law that lasted for decades during military rule before becoming hard-won democracy in the 1980s.
Woohae Cho/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
From the chaos of that night, scenes of security forces climbing through windows of the National Assembly to literally attempt to stop the lawmakers from assembling, and protesters confronting riot police.
Subsequently, pressure on the president has increased, as police, parliament, prosecutors and the head of the anti-corruption body have launched several investigations into Yoon for high treason. On Tuesday, members of the legislative arm ratified the appointment of a special counsel to look into Yoon’s Rebellion and corruption for declaring martial law.
The next day, police in South Korea searched the presidential compound, a presidential security officer told CNN. Yoon has also been restricted from travelling anywhere outside the country.
Last week, the South Korean prosecutors arrested Kim Yong-hyun, the former defense minister who reportedly suggested imposing martial law and afterward resigned. Kim tried to commit suicide in custody late on Tuesday, the director of the country’s correctional service said.
On Thursday Yoon claimed that he had spoken with Kim only about the decree before proclaiming martial law. However, parliament itself has fired both Yoon’s justice minister and his police chief.
IROC ministers and other government officials appeared in different government hearings in the past week and some of the details which emerged about the night of the martial law order are astounding.
Kwak Jong-geun, the chief of the Special Warfare Command, the accused related that he was ordered by President Yoon to open the doors of the National Assembly and to drag out the lawmakers.
South Korea, one of East Asia and a key US regional partner, is headed towards months of political stalemate of a kind witnessed in the same nation during the impeachment suspence in 2016 and 2017.
More seriously, the then-president Park Geun-hye was indicted for corruption charges, removed from her position by the Constitutional Court, convicted and imprisoned, to be released on a parole.
Source: CNN
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