DP railroads reduced 2025 budget, Yoon treason investigation bills

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DP railroads reduced 2025 budget, Yoon treason investigation bills

Published: 10 Dec. 2024, 15:57 Updated: 10 Dec. 2024, 19:34

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A bill to establish a permanent special counsel probe into treason allegations against President Yoon Suk Yeol and other officials passes with 210 votes in favor and 63 opposed at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The liberal Democratic Party (DP) railroaded a reduced version of the government’s 2025 budget plan as well as a bill establishing a permanent special counsel probe into treason allegations against President Yoon Suk Yeol through the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The impasse over next year’s budget between the DP, which holds 170 seats in the 300-seat legislature, and the conservative People Power Party (PPP), which is usually aligned with the Yoon administration, was cited by the president as one of his reasons for declaring martial law last week.

Out of 278 lawmakers present at Tuesday’s plenary session, 183 voted in favor of the DP’s budget plan, while 94 opposed. One lawmaker abstained.

The DP’s plan slashes 4.1 trillion won ($2.9 billion) from the Yoon administration’s original 677.4-trillion-won plan for government spending next year.

The reduced budget’s approval by the National Assembly came after the DP rejected the PPP’s last-minute call for only a reduction of 700 billion won from the government’s plan.

Its passage marks the first time that an annual budget plan has been passed without bipartisan agreement since the country’s democratization in 1987.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo passes a banner calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment as he leaves the main chamber of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday. Han briefly attended Tuesday's plenary session to deliver the government's remarks on the 2025 budget after it had been railroaded through the legislature by the Democratic Party. [NEWS1]

Earlier the same day, the National Assembly passed a DP-backed bill to appoint a permanent special counsel to investigate whether the president and other government officials committed treason during his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.

The bill was supported by 210 lawmakers and opposed by 63.

The majority of those who voted against the bill are considered to be part of Yoon’s dominant faction in the PPP.

However, the PPP is led by Yoon’s former justice minister and protégé Han Dong-hoon, who is one of the most prominent voices in the party calling for Yoon’s resignation from office.

Twenty-three PPP lawmakers, including Reps. Ahn Cheol-soo, Suh Bum-soo, Kim Jae-sub and Han Zee-a, voted in favor of the bill after their party allowed its 108 lawmakers to decide for themselves how to vote.

PPP Reps. Park Jeong-hun, Koh Dong-jin and Jung Sung-kook were among 14 lawmakers who abstained from voting.

The probe targets not only Yoon, but also former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and Gen. Park An-su, who served the country’s martial law commander for only a few hours before Yoon rescinded his decree.

Kim resigned from his post on Thursday over his alleged involvement in the president’s brief declaration of martial law. He declined to attend his arrest warrant hearing on Tuesday after being taken into custody for questioning by prosecutors on Sunday.

The former defense minister has been accused by the DP of recommending the imposition of martial law to President Yoon.

Others named as subjects of the permanent special counsel probe include Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, former PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho and Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung, chief of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, who is one of the three military officials who have been suspended from duty over their alleged involvement in the president’s short-lived imposition of martial law.

The DP has criticized the PPP’s plan to retain the prime minister as a caretaker to prepare for Yoon’s early exit from office, calling any plan that falls short of Yoon’s impeachment tantamount to “another act of insurrection.”

The prime minister briefly attended Tuesday’s plenary session to deliver the government’s remarks on the newly passed budget.

Neither the budget nor a permanent independent counsel bill can be vetoed by the president.

Update, Dec. 10: Names of lawmakers who abstained or voted in favor of the bill added.
Update, Dec. 10: Lede updated and details of the DP’s budget added.
Update, Dec. 10: Details regarding the prime minister’s attendance added.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]