The South Korean opposition presented this Thursday before Parliament a motion that will be voted on this Friday to seek the dismissal of Han Duck-soo, prime minister and interim president of the countryafter the acting head of state refused to comply with their demands.
The liberal’s announcement Democratic Party (PD) comes after Han said that will not approve appointments of new judges for the Constitutional Courtas the opposition demanded, until the PD itself and the ruling and conservative People’s Power Party (PPP) reach an agreement regarding the three magistrates who must occupy the vacant seats of the highest South Korean court.
The leader of the PD parliamentary group, Park Chan-dae, explained to the media that the party registered the initiative after Han’s message and that, since by law the motions cannot be voted on until 24 hours after their parliamentary presentationthe vote will take place this Friday.
On Tuesday, The main opposition bloc, which holds a majority in the National Assembly (Parliament), had already threatened to present a motion of dismissal against Han if he did not ratify the appointments of the three judges of the Constitutional Court, which between now and June must decide whether or not to make definitive the dismissal of the president, Yoon Suk-yeol, for having declared martial law at the beginning of the month.
If the three vacancies are not filled, the six judges who currently occupy seats on the highest South Korean court must unanimously approve the president’s dismissal for it to be final.
The DP is trying to apply maximum pressure on Yoon (he has also asked Han to ratify special investigations into the president and the first lady) in order to guarantee that his dismissal is finalized as soon as possible and thus early presidential elections are called in which he would be a clear favorite.
The PPP seems to be seeking instead to delay the process as much as possible. for Yoon’s dismissal given the possibility that the Supreme Court could soon ratify a sentence for violate the electoral law that weighs on the leader of the liberals, Lee Jae-myung, who would be beheaded in the face of the elections.
Han, for his part, implored the two parties this Thursday to reach an agreement with respect to the three candidates for the Constitutional, since the PD, using as an argument its clear parliamentary majority, has proposed two of them compared to one by the PPP, which insists that both formations should present one candidate each and agree to a third party.
