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President Yoon's impeachment vote set for Saturday

Published: 07 Dec. 2024, 07:00

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Protesters hold rallies calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

The impeachment vote against President Yoon Suk Yeol over the declaration of martial law this week will take place at the National Assembly on Saturday at 5 p.m., with Korea’s major political parties holding emergency meetings on Friday.

Six opposition parties including the Democratic Party (DP) submitted to the parliament an impeachment bill against Yoon at 2:40 p.m. Wednesday. According to the National Assembly Act, impeachment bills must be voted on within 24 to 72 hours after the plenary session report.

Assuming that lawmakers of all opposition parties attend the plenary session on Saturday and vote in favor of the motion, a total of 192 votes will be cast.

Even if all of the opposition parties attend, they will still need to encourage eight members of the president's own party to cross party lines to receive the total 200 votes needed to impeach.

People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon, having previously opposed the idea of impeaching Yoon, declared on Friday during the party’s emergency supreme council meeting that Yoon’s “immediate suspension from duty” is necessary to “protect the country and its people,” foreshadowing that a rift within the PPP could potentially form.

Han stuck to this position even after a private meeting with Yoon Friday afternoon, saying he “had not heard any remarks to reverse a judgment of suspending Yoon from presidential duty.”

“Although it would be hard to change the party's stance on Yoon's impeachment vote, my opinion is that Yoon should be suspended from duty,” Han reiterated after the meeting.

Some opposition lawmakers have communicated with their PPP colleagues across the aisle and have gathered intel that the eight additional votes needed for impeachment could come, according to multiple reports.

DP leader Lee Jae-myung said after his party’s emergency meeting on Friday that he had talked to Han about the impeachment bill earlier, saying that the two parties “need to communicate.”

Rep. Chun Ha-ram, floor leader of the minor New Reform Party, said Friday that Rep. Lee Jun-seok had “individually confirmed” several PPP lawmakers’ intentions to support the impeachment the day before.

PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo posted on his social media that “the ruling and opposition parties must reach an agreement for orderly change and Yoon’s resignation.”

Rep. Cho Kyoung-tae, also of the PPP, made the first definitive statement as a ruling party member to declare his support for the impeachment of Yoon on Friday.

“It is a matter for politicians to decide whether to stand on the side of the people by suspending the president from his duties or to become an accomplice of the forces that declared martial law," Cho said. "I hope that all PPP members will become politicians who stand on the side of the people.”

Nationwide, street protests demanding Yoon’s resignation have continued since Wednesday, while a joint prosecution-police-military probe into the circumstances of the martial law was announced on Friday.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]