‘Six minutes to text 108 lawmakers’: Netizens bombard politicians demanding Yoon’s impeachment

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‘Six minutes to text 108 lawmakers’: Netizens bombard politicians demanding Yoon’s impeachment

Published: 06 Dec. 2024, 10:56 Updated: 06 Dec. 2024, 11:18

KIM JEE-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A screen capture uploaded by Rep. Shin Sung-bum of the People Power Party on Thursday showing numerous text messages urging the party to vote for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, alongside a program created by the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions that allows people to automatically send text messages to PPP lawmakers. [JOONGANG ILBO]

People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers are receiving thousands of text messages from the public urging them to support the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The impeachment motion is set to be put to a vote on Saturday, according to an announcement by the opposition Democratic Party (DP) Thursday.

On Thursday, phone numbers of PPP lawmakers were shared on social media, including X, with posts reading: “Let’s start a collective action and send text messages to PPP lawmakers so that they can vote for impeachment.”

Other social posts read: “Let’s show the power of voters in the country with text messages against the ruling party that can’t even ask the President to leave the party despite his actions.”

“I never thought I’d send a text message to a lawmaker.”

A program that automates the process of sending text messages to lawmakers also circulated online.

If users enter the link created by the umbrella labor union Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, they can see the list of names of PPP lawmakers. They only need to press the names of lawmakers to send pre-saved text messages to them.

A user of the program left a comment online saying, “It only took six minutes to send text messages to 108 lawmakers.”

Rep. Shin Sung-bum of the PPP uploaded a Facebook post on Thursday saying, “Please understand if I don’t take calls for several days,” with a screen capture image of more than 4,000 text messages bombarding his phone.

Shin described the image as a screen capture of his phone at 10:50 a.m. Thursday, with text messages continuing to pile up as if a taxi meter were running.

Rep. Lee Jun-seok, former leader of the PPP and now a Reform Party lawmaker, asked to stop sending text messages containing images of knives and swear words in a social post Thursday, saying people are participating in the collective action without proper information.

“All of our party members have already agreed to file the impeachment motion and completed signing,” Lee said. “Whoever instigated this based on false information is pathetic.”

The Reform Party joined liberal parties, including the Democratic Party and Rebuilding Korea Party, on Wednesday and proposed the impeachment motion together with them.

For the motion to pass, two-thirds of the 300 lawmakers in the National Assembly need to vote for it. Currently, the opposition parties control 192 seats.

The movement to impeach the president quickly gained steam after Yoon declared martial law Tuesday night in a surprise announcement. The martial law was quickly lifted overnight as lawmakers gathered and voted against its enforcement at 1 a.m. Wednesday.

BY JEONG HYE-JEONG, KIM JEE-HEE [[email protected]]