South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul, December 7, 2024. AP South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol escaped impeachment on Saturday, December 7, a motion to this effect tabled by the opposition did not not collecting the necessary quorum due to the boycott of deputies from the ruling party. A total of 200 votes out of 300 were needed to dismiss Mr Yoon, but only 195 MPs took part in the vote. “Therefore, I declare that the vote on this issue is invalid,” National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik said. South Korean MPs began voting on Saturday, December 7, on the motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol for his failed attempt to impose martial law, while nearly 150,000 opponents of Mr. Yoon gathered in front of Parliament, according to the authorities. The vote and the result of the impeachment motion had to take place within 72 hours of its submission, i.e. until around 1 a.m. Sunday (5 p.m. in France), otherwise it would be canceled. Almost all the deputies of the People’s Power Party (PPP) of the South Korean president left the chamber in order to block, due to lack of quorum, the impeachment motion filed by the opposition against the head of state. At least 200 votes out of 300 are needed in South Korea’s National Assembly to impeach the president. Mr. Yoon’s PPP has 108 seats and the opposition parties 192. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In South Korea, the fate of the president hangs on eight votes Read later The images of the session broadcast live showed the PPP deputies leaving the chamber before the vote. Only two PPP elected officials remained and participated. A third showed up a little later and voted, to applause. Yoon Suk Yeol stunned South Korea on Tuesday evening by announcing the imposition of martial law, an unprecedented measure since the coup of the dictator, Chun Doo-hwan, in 1980, and by sending the army in Parliament with the aim of muzzling him. In incredible conditions, 190 deputies still managed to hold an emergency session in the night, while their assistants blocked the doors of the hemicycle with furniture to prevent armed soldiers from entering. Unanimously, these deputies voted against martial law, forcing the unpopular conservative president to repeal it after barely six hours. “I have caused anxiety and inconvenience to the public” In a televised address to the nation lasting just two minutes on Saturday morning, Mr. Yoon, 63, announced that he would entrust his party with the task of take “measures aimed at stabilizing the political situation, including regarding my mandate”. “I will not shy away from my legal and political responsibilities regarding the declaration of martial law,” he added. Le Monde Mémorable Test your general knowledge with the editorial staff of “Le Monde” Test your general knowledge with the editorial staff of “Le Monde” Discover He explained his coup by his “despair as president”, while Parliament was largely dominated by the opposition torpedoed practically all his initiatives. “I have caused anxiety and inconvenience to the public. I offer my sincere apologies,” he concluded before bowing deeply to the viewers. His very short speech did nothing to calm the general animosity against him. The leader of the PPP, Han Dong-hoon, immediately affirmed that “an early resignation of the president is inevitable”, the normal exercise of his functions being, according to him, “impossible under these circumstances”. But at the end of a meeting on the night of Friday to Saturday, a majority of party deputies reaffirmed the official line according to which they would defeat the impeachment, while Mr. Han had requested the “rapid suspension” of Mr. Yoon. “It seems the ruling party decided to oppose impeachment in the vote on the condition that the president cedes control to it,” said Chae Jin-won, a researcher at Humanitas College of Kyung Hee University. “The main problem is that, while recognizing that the president has committed wrongdoing and that he is a criminal, they simply do not want to give power to Lee Jae-myung,” the head of the Democratic Party, the main force opposition, he added. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Kim Ou-joon, a political commentator targeted by martial law in South Korea: “President Yoon wanted to set up a National Assembly under his orders” Read later “The population will not forgive him” « Currently, the biggest risk in South Korea is the very existence of the president. The only solutions are an immediate resignation (…) or an early departure by dismissal,” said Lee Jae-myung after the presidential address. This statement “only exacerbates the feeling of betrayal and anger among citizens,” he added. Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday afternoon in front of Parliament to await the outcome of the vote. There were 150,000 of them when Parliament voted on the impeachment motion, according to the authorities, and one million, according to the organizers. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In South Korea, demonstrators demand the arrest of their president, Yoon Suk Yeol Read later A pro-Yoon rally also took place on Saturday afternoon in the central square of Gwanghwamun. Protesters held posters saying “Arrest Lee Jae-myung”, others waved American flags. Fearing a new nighttime coup by the president, who had not appeared in public since Wednesday, opposition deputies camped out all night inside the National Assembly. Buses and other vehicles were parked on plazas around the building to prevent possible special forces helicopters from landing. In his speech on Saturday morning, however, Mr. Yoon assured that “there will never be a second martial law.” In addition to the impeachment procedure, Yoon Suk Yeol is the target of a police investigation for “rebellion”, a crime theoretically punishable by the death penalty (which has not been applied in the country since 1997). Corrigendum of December 7 at 11:52 a.m.: correction on the duration of the vote on the impeachment motion. Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content
Author : News7
Publish date : 2024-12-07 12:49:57
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