South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized Saturday for public concern caused by his short-lived attempt. impose martial law earlier this week, hours before a parliamentary vote on his impeachment.
Yoon said in a brief televised speech Saturday morning that he would not shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and vowed not to make another attempt to impose it. He said he would leave it to his conservative political party to chart a path forward through the country’s political turmoil, “including issues related to my mandate.”
South Korean lawmakers are expected to vote later Saturday on impeaching the president, as protests grow across the country calling for his removal.
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It was not immediately clear whether the motion submitted by opposition lawmakers would achieve the two-thirds majority required for Yoon to be impeached. But that seems more likely after the head of Yoon’s own party called on Friday for his constitutional powers to be suspended, describing him as unfit for the job and capable of taking more extreme measures, including renewed attempts to impose law martial.
Yoon’s impeachment would require the support of 200 of the 300 members of the National Assembly. The opposition parties that jointly filed the impeachment motion have a total of 192 seats.
That means they would need at least eight votes from Yoon’s People Power Party. On Wednesday, 18 PPP members participated in the vote that unanimously overturned martial law, 190 votes to 0, less than three hours after Yoon declared the measure on television, calling the opposition-controlled Parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs. The vote took place as hundreds of heavily armed soldiers surrounded the National Assembly in a bid to disrupt the vote and possibly arrest key politicians.
Parliament announced on Saturday that it would meet at 5 p.m. local time. He will first vote on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of influence peddling regarding Yoon’s wife, then on Yoon’s impeachment.
The unrest resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly thought-out coup has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked concern among key diplomatic partners, including neighboring Japan and the United States, Seoul’s main ally, as one of the Asia’s strongest democracies are facing a political crisis that could topple their leader.
Opposition lawmakers say Yoon’s declaration of martial law amounts to a self-coup and have framed the impeachment motion around the rebellion charges.
The PPP decided to oppose the impeachment at a meeting of lawmakers, despite calls from its leader Han Dong-hun, who is not an MP and does not have the right to vote.
After a party meeting Friday, Han stressed the need to quickly suspend Yoon’s presidential duties and power, saying he “could potentially put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger.”
Han said he received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law, Yoon had ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities”.
Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door news briefing that Yoon had called after he imposed martial law and ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to arrest key politicians. The targeted politicians included Han, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers present at the meeting.
The Defense Ministry said it had suspended defense counterintelligence commander Yeo In-hyung, who Han said had received orders from Yoon to arrest the politicians. The ministry also suspended Lee Jin-woo, commander of the Capital Defense Command, and Kwak Jong-geun, commander of the Special Warfare Command, for their involvement in enforcing martial law.
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, accused of recommending martial law to Yoon, has been placed under a travel ban and is being investigated by prosecutors for alleged accusations of rebellion.
Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho, who became acting defense minister after Yoon accepted Kim Yong Hyun’s resignation on Thursday, told parliament that it was Kim Yong Hyun who ordered the deployment troops in the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law.