The opposition has presented a motion impeachment which will be voted on in the coming days. The Ministers of the Interior and Defense, who collaborated to impose martial law, have also been accused. Civil society in the streets calls for the president’s resignation.
Seoul (/Agencies) – The South Korean opposition has begun the procedure to accuse President Yoon Suk Yeol, who yesterday declared (and later revoked) martial law. Today in the capital, Seoul, thousands of people took to the streets to protest, and even South Korean bishops criticized the decision to resort to martial law.
In the announcement that was broadcast live last night (and of which several of the president’s collaborators were not aware), Yoon accused the opposition, led by the Democratic Party, of hindering the work of the Government. In the previous days, Parliament – controlled since April by the opposition – had resized the budget law with a series of cuts and had presented a motion to dismiss an auditor and the attorney general.
Yesterday Yoon spoke of “anti-state forces” and “pro-North Korean”, expressions that he had used in the past in reference to the opposition and that, therefore, have nothing to do with the military threat from North Korea.
For many South Koreans, the proclamation of martial law was a shock that evoked the times of the dictatorship that ended in 1988. An hour after the announcement, the chief of the Army General Staff assumed command of a commission that was supposed to supervise all administrative functions. and judicial. South Korean martial law effectively imposes, among other things, the suspension of all political activities, including those of the National Assembly (Parliament).
At that same moment, the 190 deputies (out of a total of 300) representing the opposition met in the chamber to unanimously vote to revoke martial law. As thousands of protesters gathered outside the Parliament building, some soldiers broke in, but were met with resistance from staff. Yoon waited until 4:20 a.m. to lift martial law and now risks facing impeachment.
This morning the Democratic Party and five other parties filed a motion to impeach Yoon. The opposition maintains that the proclamation of martial law represented a threat to the constitutional order because it was not invoked in a situation that could have justified it (the maintenance of public order in times of war or a national emergency, for example).
The spokesman for the Democratic Party, Jo Seoung-lae, stated that an attempt will also be made to impeach the Defense Minister (who is supposed to have suggested the imposition of martial law) and the Minister of the Interior (responsible for the police forces). The motion of impeachmentwhich requires a two-thirds majority to be approved and will be voted on in the coming days, It was not signed, however, by any of the deputies of the Popular Power Partyr, the conservative-oriented political formation from which Yoon comes. With 192 votes at this time, the opposition would only need eight to reach 200 and approve the president’s impeachment. During the night several conservative legislators close to Yoon distanced themselves from the imposition of martial law.
Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval ratings had long since fallen below 25%. Activists had reported a deterioration in rights under his government. For months, doctors have been on strike to protest against government policies to solve the staff shortage, which according to specialists would not have solved the problem. Yoon had also been criticized for his growing aggressiveness toward North Korea and for his strongly pro-US and pro-Japan stance, which is why some pro-Yoon protesters displayed American flags alongside South Korean flags in central Seoul today. South. Among the various demonstrations taking place in Korea at the moment, unions have announced a general strike until Yoon is removed from power.
At the end of November, a group of more than 1,400 priests had called for the president’s resignation, calling him a “man of shame,” “of violence” and “of division,” “incapable of understanding his role and respecting power.” “. Today the Catholic Episcopal Conference of South Korea once again referred to the issue, taking sides in defense of democracy: “The Catholic Church in Korea actively supports and stands in solidarity with the defense of our democracy, achieved with the blood and sweat of many people over the years.
According to Bishop Lee Yong-hoon, one of the signatories of the statement, “many wonder whether it was a reasonable decision for the president to declare martial law in the Republic of Korea in 2024, which had only been invoked during the military regime, and whether it was a correct decision for him, as supreme commander, to impose martial law in the dead of night, without there being an invasion by an external enemy or a visible threat of war.”
And the bishops’ statement concludes by saying: “the president should appear personally before the people, explain the series of events, sincerely apologize and assume his responsibilities.”
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