South Korea: Lawmakers Impeach President Han Duck-Soo

By Staff, Agencies

South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach the acting president, Han Duck-soo, plunging the country deeper into a political crisis that has caused policy deadlock and damaged its international reputation.

The national assembly approved an impeachment motion introduced on Thursday by the main opposition party by a 192-0 vote. The chamber has 300 MPs, but members of the ruling People Power party [PPP] boycotted Friday’s vote.

Han took over as president after his predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached over his short-lived imposition of martial law on 3 December. The move triggered six hours of chaos that, for many older South Koreans, brought back memories of the country’s bloody transition from military rule to democracy in the 1980s.

The main opposition Democratic party – which has a majority in the national assembly – targeted Han after accusing him of participating in Yoon’s botched imposition of martial law, which ended when MPs forced their way into the parliament building to overturn Yoon’s decree.

The opposition parties needed a number of Yoon’s own party to vote with them to impeach the disgraced former president a fortnight ago. Other senior South Korean officials, including Han – the former prime minister – can be impeached with a simple majority.

Han angered opposition MPs this week when he refused to immediately appoint three justices to fill vacancies at the constitutional court, which will decide whether or not to approve the impeachment vote against Yoon. Han said appointing justices would exceed his powers as acting president.

In response, the Democrat party leader, Lee Jae-myung, accused Han of “acting for insurrection”.

“The only way to normalize the country is to swiftly root out all the insurrection forces,” Lee said, adding that his party was acting on behalf of the public to “eradicate” politicians who had put South Korea – Asia’s fourth-biggest economy – at risk.

Polls indicate that South Koreans, who have demonstrated against Yoon in their tens of thousands, support his removal over the martial law fiasco.

The chaotic scenes witnessed in the national assembly were repeated on Friday, when PPP lawmakers gathered around the assembly’s speaker, the opposition MP Woo Won-shik, to noisily denounce the vote against Han as invalid and call for Woo’s resignation.

Han said in a statement after the vote that he would step aside to avoid more chaos and await the constitutional court’s ruling on his impeachment.

Friday’s vote means South Korea must now reach further down the political pecking order for a leader. By law, the finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, will become interim president.