South Koreaʼs main opposition party, the Democratic Party, said it would charge President Yoon Seok Yeol with treason after he declared martial law in the country for about six hours. This will also apply to his defense and interior ministers, whom the opposition also wants to impeach.
This is reported by Yonhap.
Six opposition parties have already submitted a draft law on the impeachment of President Yoon Seok Yeol.
The proposal will first be tabled in plenary, likely on December 5, after which parliament will vote within 72 hours on whether to continue the impeachment process, requiring a two-thirds majority of the 300 politicians.
The Democratic Party and other small opposition parties together have 192 seats in parliament. That means at least eight of South Koreaʼs ruling partyʼs 108 lawmakers must support impeachment for it to pass.
While some of the partyʼs lawmakers voted against martial law, it remains unclear whether they will side with opposition parties in supporting impeachment.
The head of the ruling Party Han Dong Hoon said that the partyʼs lawmakers are in favour of carrying out something at the level of "large-scale personnel reform", but not general resignation. At the same time, according to him, no agreement was reached regarding the president.
In the event of a successful vote, the Constitutional Court of the country will further decide on the justification of the dismissal of the president from office.
During the deliberations in court, the constitutional powers of the president will be suspended, and Prime Minister Han Dak Soo will take over his duties.
What preceded
Yoon Seok Yeol declared martial law in the country on the night of December 3-4 to "protect the constitutional order" — the first time since the 1980s. The reason was that the opposition Democratic Party of South Korea, which has a majority in parliament, rejected the governmentʼs budget proposal and decided to impeach the state auditor and the chief prosecutor.
An hour later, South Koreaʼs parliament passed a resolution calling for martial law to be lifted. 190 MPs out of 190 who took part in the vote spoke in favour of the decision. In total, South Korea has 300 MPs, but only 190 of them were able to get into the parliament building, despite being surrounded by soldiers who stormed the National Assembly building.
After that, the South Korean government supported the "plan to lift martial law" demanded by the parliament. The office of the countryʼs prime minister reported that the proposal was approved at 04:30 local time. Martial law lasted for about six hours.
When the parliamentarians adopted the resolution, people sang the national anthem and applauded in the streets. According to preliminary estimates, four thousand citizens gathered near the parliament building. Korean trade union flags could be seen in the crowd. The head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Yang Kyung Soo, took to the podium and announced an indefinite general strike until President Yoon Seok Yeol resigns.
The leader of the opposition Democratic Party Park Chan Dae said that the South Korean president cannot escape accusations of treason and should "immediately resign." The Democratic Party won 184 seats out of 300 in the National Assembly in the parliamentary elections in April 2024, significantly weakening the countryʼs conservative President Yoon Seok Yeol.
- South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol has been unpopular since taking office in 2022. An online petition for his resignation, which was submitted on June 20, 2024, gained more than 811,000 signatures in ten days.
- Yoon Seok Yeol has low approval ratings in the country, particularly due to rising food and housing prices, labor conflicts and a sharp drop in the birth rate. The presidentʼs reputation was also under fire over a hidden camera video of First Lady Kim Keon Hee allegedly accepting a $2 200 Dior bag as a gift.
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