The Korean National Assembly opened a plenary session today, December 14, to vote for the second time on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol or not for his failed declaration of martial law on December 3, according to Yonhap.
The first attempt to impeach Yoon on December 7 failed after most lawmakers from Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote. The opposition Democratic Party in Korea vowed to promote the impeachment voting process every week until its goal is achieved.
According to Yonhap, the new petition has made amendments compared to the first petition, which erased some of the accusations against Mr. Yoon but added a number of other accusations, including accusations that the president ordered Mr. The army and police arrested lawmakers while martial law was in effect.
200 votes are needed for the impeachment motion to pass, meaning opposition lawmakers in South Korea must convince eight lawmakers from the PPP to vote in favor. Seven people have pledged to support impeachment, according to AFP.
Police stand guard outside the Korean National Assembly building during a protest calling for the ouster of Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul on December 14
Meanwhile, Reuters today quoted information from the Korean press saying that the PPP has decided to maintain its official stance of voting against the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, but will not boycott the vote. impeachment.
If the impeachment motion is passed, Mr. Yoon will be suspended from his position Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will assume the role of interim president.
After that, the Korean Constitutional Court will have 180 days to make a decision on Mr. Yoon’s future. If the court upholds the dismissal, Mr. Yoon will become the second president in Korean history to be successfully impeached, after former President Park Geun-hye in 2017.
The President of South Korea decided to ‘fight to the end’ to protect the decision to impose martial law
But there is also precedent for the court to block impeachment. In 2004, then-president Roh Moo-hyun was dismissed by parliament for violating election laws and incompetence, but the Constitutional Court later reinstated him.
If today’s vote is unsuccessful, Mr. Yoon could still face “legal responsibility” for declaring martial law, according to Ms. Kim Hyun-jung, a researcher at the Korea University Law Institute. Quoc.
“This is clearly an act of rebellion. Even if the impeachment motion is not passed, the president’s legal responsibility under the Penal Code… remains unavoidable,” Ms. Kim commented, according to AFP.
