Shortly after the announcement, Yoon went public to say that he “will not give up”
VICTOR LACOMBE – After a failed attempt on the 7th, the South Korean Parliament obtained the necessary support and voted this Saturday (14) to dismiss President Yoon Suk Yeol, 11 days after the attempted self-coup promoted by him with the decree of martial law.
The impeachment was approved by 204 votes in favor and 85 against – the approval of two thirds of the National Assembly, or 200 of the 300 seats, was required. Three congressmen abstained and eight others voted null.
Shortly after the announcement, Yoon went public to say that he “will not give up”. “I am frustrated that all efforts so far will be in vain,” he said in statements made to Korean media. “I will stop for now, but the journey I have taken with the people in these two and a half years towards the future cannot be stopped. I won’t give up.”
On the 7th, the impeachment vote had failed after a boycott by the ruling PPP (People’s Power Party). This Saturday, as the party’s president had already indicated to the press, the party did not make the opposition movement unfeasible – at least 12 deputies voted to remove Yoon.
PPP president Han Dong-hoon said he will not resign from his position and that the party will respect the result of the vote. If there are new elections, the ruling party is likely to suffer a major setback at the polls, given the strong reaction to Yoon’s attempted self-coup.
With impeachment, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo assumes presidential functions, as determined by the South Korean Constitution. If the Constitutional Court approves the Legislative’s decision, which is likely, new elections for the position of head of the Executive must be held within 60 days. The body has up to six months to make a decision.
Han said this Saturday that he will work to provide security for the people of South Korea. “I will make every effort and give all my strength to stabilize the government,” he told the press. Acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho asked military officials to keep the Armed Forces on alert to prevent North Korea from taking advantage of its neighbor’s chaotic situation.
Pro-impeachment protesters who braved sub-zero South Korean winter temperatures to watch the vote outside the National Assembly jumped and shouted with joy upon hearing the news. The president of the Democratic Party, the main opposition party, told supporters this Saturday that “you, the people, did this. You are writing a new story.”
Yoon becomes the second president to be impeached in South Korea in recent years. In 2017, then Chief Executive Park Geun-hye was removed from office as a result of a corruption investigation against her carried out by Yoon himself, at the time a prosecutor.
Investigated by the police for insurrection and the target of protests over his resignation, Yoon’s stay in office became practically unsustainable on Wednesday (11), when he made a televised speech in which he raised the tone against the opposition.
At the time, he said that the declaration of martial law classified as a self-coup by the opposition was necessary and questioned the fairness of the legislative elections in April this year, in which he lost his majority in the National Assembly. Yoon also reaffirmed that he would not resign.
The president’s position caused surprise and indignation even among allies, as on the previous Saturday (7), hours before the first impeachment vote, he apologized to the nation and stated that he had been driven by desperation in resorting to martial law, which restricts rights. politicians.
In the second statement, in an attempt to justify the declaration of law, the president stated that “criminal groups” that paralyze the work of the State and challenge the rule of law must be fought and prevented from coming to power “at any price”.
The investigation against him led South Korean police to attempt a search operation at the presidential office on Wednesday (11), but the agents were prevented by Yoon’s security team. Furthermore, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun has been in prison since the 8th – last Tuesday (10th), he tried to commit suicide in prison.
The declaration of martial law, on the night of December 3, was the first since the end of the dictatorship in the country, in 1987. The text suspended political activities and civil liberties and took soldiers to the streets of Seoul, who even invaded Parliament, but they retreated.
The measure was unanimously rejected in Parliament in the early hours of Wednesday (4), Tuesday afternoon in Brazil, in a vote without the participation of government parliamentarians, who also spoke out against the procedure.
Former prosecutor who became a star in the country, Yoon Suk Yeol was elected in 2022 on a conservative platform in the tightest election in Korean history. The advantage over second place was just 0.73 percentage points.
