Seoul, Dec 13 (IANS) A second motion to impeach South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol over his botched martial law declaration was reported to the National Assembly on Friday, with the nation reeling from Yoon’s December 3 invocation of martial law that triggered unprecedented political turmoil.
Yoon has remained defiant, saying on Thursday that declaring martial law was “within the realm of executive authority, which is not subject to judicial review” and he would fight “until the last moment.”
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and other opposition parties had originally planned to begin voting on the motion as of 5 p.m. on Saturday, but the office of National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik brought forward the timing to 4 p.m., reports Yonhap news agency
DP leader Lee Jae-myung urged ruling party lawmakers to vote in favour of the motion, stressing that impeachment is the “fastest and surest way to end this chaos.”
At least eight lawmakers from the ruling party are needed to vote on Saturday if the second impeachment motion is passed. So far, seven ruling party lawmakers have publicly said they would do so.
By law, an impeachment motion must be put to a vote between 24 and 72 hours after it is reported to a plenary session.
The first motion to impeach Yoon was scrapped last Saturday as most ruling party lawmakers boycotted the vote. Following the scrapping of the first motion, the DP vowed to push for the passage of Yoon’s impeachment every week.
The second motion includes allegations that martial law troops and police attempted to arrest lawmakers under the leadership of the president.
Allegations against First Lady Kim Keon Hee, including her suspected involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and interference in election nominations through a power broker, have been removed from the latest motion.
Later on Friday, the newly elected floor leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said the party would decide on its official stance regarding the impeachment vote on Saturday.
“Currently, the party’s official position is to vote down the impeachment, but it’s an outcome of discussions among lawmakers,” Kweon Seong-dong, a key confidant of Yoon, told reporters.
During the vote on the first motion, 108 PPP lawmakers, with the exception of three, exited the parliamentary chamber in line with the party’s official decision to boycott the vote.
For the motion to pass, at least eight PPP lawmakers would need to support it. So far, seven have publicly stated they intend to vote in favour of impeachment.
“If the party adopts an official position, as floor leader, all I can do is appeal to lawmakers to respect and adhere to it,” Kweon said. He also noted that there is no way to forcibly compel lawmakers to comply with the party’s stance.
In another sign of mounting public outrage over the martial law bid, Yoon’s approval rating fell to a record low of 11 per cent, according to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea on 1,002 adults.
In the same survey, 75 per cent of respondents supported Yoon’s impeachment, while 21 per cent opposed it.
If the motion is passed, the Constitutional Court will decide whether to reinstate or remove Yoon from office.
If upheld by the court, Yoon would be the second president in South Korea’s history to be removed from office through impeachment after former President Park Geun-hye in 2017.
–IANS
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