South Korea’s ruling party leader has said President Yoon Suk Yeol needs to be removed from power for trying to impose martial law, increasing the pressure on him to quit even though members of his People Power Party (PPP) late on Friday reaffirmed its formal opposition to his impeachment.
On Saturday, politicians will vote on the main opposition Democratic Party’s (DP) motion to impeach Mr Yoon, who shocked the nation late on Tuesday when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers to root out what he called “anti-state forces” and overcome obstructionist political opponents.
Mr Yoon rescinded the declaration about six hours later after parliament, including some members of his party, voted to oppose the decree.
The conservative PPP has vowed to oppose the impeachment Bill, a position it reaffirmed on Friday night following a lengthy meeting of its legislators – at least some of whom would need to back it for the motion to succeed. Mr Yoon said he would listen to the party’s concerns, a PPP spokesperson told reporters.
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Acting defence minister Kim Seon-ho said reports that had swirled throughout Friday that there might be another attempt to impose martial law were not true.
PPP leader Han Dong-hoon had earlier added fuel to those rumours, and suggested the party’s stance on impeachment might be shifting, when he said there was “a high risk of extreme actions such as this emergency martial law being repeated” while Yoon remained in power.
He also cited “credible evidence” that Mr Yoon had on Tuesday intended to arrest and detain political leaders at Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, and called for Mr Yoon’s “immediate suspension”. He did not explicitly call for impeachment or respond to reporters when asked for clarification.
The presidential office later denied any such order to arrest prominent politicians had been given, the Yonhap news agency reported.
DP leader Lee Jae-myung said there was still a possibility of another spontaneous late-night declaration by Mr Yoon, though he did not offer substantive evidence. “The situation is getting worse, there are fewer ways [for Yoon] to escape,” Mr Lee told Reuters in an interview. “That’s why it’s very dangerous tonight, because the only chance he has is tonight and tomorrow morning”.
Some PPP members urged Mr Yoon to resign before the vote, saying they did not want a repeat of the 2016 impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye, who left office following months of candlelit protests over an influence-peddling scandal. Her downfall triggered the implosion of the party and a victory by liberals in presidential and general elections.
In scenes reminiscent of those protests, thousands of demonstrators holding candles assembled outside parliament on Friday night demanding Mr Yoon’s impeachment.
To succeed, an impeachment Bill would need support from two-thirds of the 300-member assembly. Mr Yoon’s party has 108 legislators, so eight would have to side with the opposition for the Bill to pass.
If parliament votes to impeach, the president is suspended from exercising his powers until an impeachment trial is held by the constitutional court. The prime minister serves as leader in an acting capacity.
Mr Yoon has not been seen in public since rescinding martial law early on Wednesday and did not attend the PPP meeting on Friday.
Following media reports Mr Yoon was on his way to parliament during the day, opposition politicians had poured out to the main lobby of the parliament building and set up a scrum to block him if he came.
The assembly speaker asked Mr Yoon not to come to parliament, even if he planned to, and said his office would take steps to prevent him from reaching the assembly. Mr Yoon’s office denied any such plans.
A Reuters reporter saw dozens of official parliamentary vehicles parked across the open spaces surrounding parliament on Friday night – the same spaces in which military helicopters had offloaded troops on Tuesday.
Police have launched investigations into the president and Kim Yong-hyun, the minister for defence who allegedly encouraged him to declare martial law and who has since resigned.
Government and military prosecutors had also decided to conduct a joint investigation into the martial law decision, according to broadcaster YTN. The defence ministry said three army commanders were suspended, while military prosecutors were seeking to bar 10 officers from travelling overseas.
Details were slowly emerging about the chaos that engulfed Seoul on Tuesday night following Mr Yoon’s surprise declaration, which stirred painful memories of the country’s long years of military rule following second World War.
Kwak Jong-geun, the special warfare commander, said he defied an order from then-defence minister Kim to drag politicians out of parliament, and instead ordered his troops to not carry live ammunition or enter the area where politicians were meeting.
“I told them not to go in,” he told an opposition politician’s YouTube channel.
The national election commission said in a statement on Friday that about 300 martial law forces had entered premises under its control across the country following Mr Yoon’s shock announcement.
“The occupation of the national election commission, an independent organisation under the constitution, is a clear unconstitutional and illegal act,” the statement said.
Mr Yoon’s approval rating plunged to a new low of 13 per cent, according to the latest Gallup Korea poll released on Friday. – Reuters