Yoon should not remain as South Korean president, his party leader says
Dec. 6, 2024, 11:06 AM GMT+5
SEOUL, South Korea — The head of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s governing party on Friday signaled more openness to his removal as president for plunging the key U.S. ally into chaos with a short-lived declaration of martial law, reversing his position the day before an impeachment vote.
Han Dong-hoon, leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), had earlier said he opposed impeaching Yoon because it would only create more turmoil. But on Friday he said he had learned that Yoon ordered the arrest of prominent politicians in addition to declaring martial law, an order that was lifted six hours later after lawmakers voted to reject it.
“In light of these new revelations, I have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to suspend President Yoon from exercising his mandate to protect the South Korea and its people,” Han said, adding that Yoon was “not acknowledging his wrongdoings.”
If Yoon continues as president, Han said, “I fear that there will be a great risk of radical actions such as this state of emergency repeating, and he will put South Korea and its people in great danger.”
Han’s comments increased the likelihood that Yoon will be impeached when a vote is held around 7 p.m. local time Saturday (5 a.m. ET). The opposition bloc holds 192 of the unicameral legislature’s 300 seats, just under the two-thirds majority needed for the motion to pass.
The PPP, which repudiated Yoon’s martial law declaration, had asked him to leave the party but said earlier that it opposed the impeachment motion. Before Han changed his position, at least eight lawmakers from the PPP would have had to break with their party in order for it to pass.
Six opposition parties had proposed impeaching Yoon over the martial law order, which banned political activity and censored the media. If Yoon is impeached, he will be suspended from office until the Constitutional Court decides whether to uphold the motion, with a deadline of 180 days.
South Korean police and prosecutors are also investigating claims of insurrection and treason against Yoon, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, whose resignation Yoon accepted on Thursday, and Interior Minister Lee Sang-min.
The deeply unpopular Yoon, 63, whose approval rating was already at 19% before the emergency martial law, had blamed opposition lawmakers in his declaration, accusing them of paralyzing the government by seeking the impeachment of multiple government officials and slashing critical funding from next year’s national budget.
He also accused his opponents of sympathizing with nuclear-armed North Korea, a reclusive communist state with which the South technically remains at war.
Yoon has not made any public appearances since lifting the martial law order on Wednesday. On Friday, lawmakers at the National Assembly, which was swarmed by almost 300 martial law troops on Tuesday after Yoon declared martial law in a surprise late-night TV address, linked arms to block the entrance amid concerns that he might visit.
Opposition lawmakers have expressed concern that Yoon might declare martial law a second time if he is impeached or even earlier.
“I feel that danger is imminent tonight,” Lee Jae-myung, leader of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, said Friday. “I have a gut feeling that something might happen again tonight or early morning tomorrow.”
Acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho dismissed such concerns and said that even if Yoon made such an attempt, the Ministry of Defense and the South Korean military “would categorically reject it.”
Yoon’s special forces commander, Kwak Jong-keun, also said Friday that it would be impossible for Yoon to declare martial law again “because I will refuse to comply with any such order.”
Kwak was among three officers the Ministry of National Defense suspended from duty on Friday, along with Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo, head of the Capital Defense Command, and Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung, head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command.
The ministry also said it had requested overseas travel bans for 10 active-duty officers, including Kwak, Lee, Yeo and Gen. Park Ahn-soo, who as army chief of staff was named martial law commander. All four are accused of treason, the ministry said, adding that three brigadier generals and three commanders who were confirmed to have deployed soldiers made up the other six.
In a call Thursday with his South Korean counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “deep concerns” about the martial law declaration and welcomed the lifting of the order.