{"id":104297,"date":"2024-12-05T05:03:13","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T05:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/12\/05\/south-korea-opposition-files-motion-to-impeach-president-yoon\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T05:03:13","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T05:03:13","slug":"south-korea-opposition-files-motion-to-impeach-president-yoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/south-korea-opposition-files-motion-to-impeach-president-yoon\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea opposition files motion to impeach President Yoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korea\u2019s opposition lawmakers have begun impeachment proceedings against President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to impose martial law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The country woke up to an uncertain reality on Wednesday after a night of unprecedented scenes which saw Yoon unexpectedly impose martial law, 190 lawmakers gather to vote it down, and a sudden reversal of the decision\u00a0around six hours later.<\/p>\n

After introducing\u00a0the impeachment motion, South Korea\u2019s main opposition Democratic Party condemned Yoon\u2019s initial martial law declaration as \u201cinsurrectionary behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

Parliament will have to vote\u00a0on whether to impeach Yoon by Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can no longer allow democracy to collapse. The lives and safety of the people must be protected,\u201d said Kim Yong-jin, a member of the Democratic party\u2019s central committee.<\/p>\n

The Party also said it wants to charge Yoon with \u201ccrimes of rebellion\u201d.<\/p>\n

It named Minister Kim Yong-hyun and Interior Minister Lee Sang-min as \u201ckey participants\u201d of the martial law declaration,\u00a0saying it also wanted them charged alongside Yoon.<\/p>\n

But South Korea\u2019s ruling People Power Party, which Yoon is a member of, has agreed to oppose his impeachment, according to the country\u2019s Yonhap news agency.<\/p>\n

The opposition needs at least eight of 108 ruling party lawmakers to back the bill in order for it to pass.<\/p>\n

None of the ruling party lawmakers were present for the introduction of the motion at the National Assembly in the early hours of Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Schools, banks and government offices in Seoul were\u00a0operating as usual\u00a0on Wednesday, but protests continued throughout the city demanding the president resign.<\/p>\n

\u201cArrest Yoon Suk Yeol,\u201d some angry citizens chanted as they filled the streets.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s largest labour group, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, vowed to go on indefinite strike until the president steps down.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the country\u2019s defence minister Kim Yong-hyun tendered his resignation and said he would take full responsibility for the martial law. He apologised to the public for spreading confusion and causing distress, the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Yoon\u2019s senior aides, including chief of staff Chung Jin-suk and national security adviser Shin Won-sik, also\u00a0tendered their resignations.<\/p>\n

Whether their resignations will be accepted by Yoon\u00a0is unclear.<\/p>\n

The reversal of the shock order early on Wednesday came after dramatic scenes overnight.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of troops stormed the parliament after Yoon declared martial law, as military helicopters circled the site.<\/p>\n

Some opposition lawmakers broke barricades and climb fences to get to the voting chamber. Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, told BBC Korea he rushed to parliament thinking \u201cwe must protect democracy\u201d and scaled the fence.<\/p>\n

Eventually,\u00a0190 lawmakers evaded police lines and forced themselves inside to vote down the order.<\/p>\n

Thousands of protesters also\u00a0arrived at the gates of the National Assembly.\u00a0One woman was captured on video grabbing a soldier\u2019s gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared at first\u2026but seeing such confrontation, I thought, \u2018I can\u2019t stay silent\u2019,\u201d Democratic Party spokeswoman Ahn Gwi-ryeong told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Yoon\u2019s second announcement \u2013 that he was reversing his earlier order \u2013 was met with cheers from protesters outside parliament.<\/p>\n

The post South Korea opposition files motion to impeach President Yoon<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korea\u2019s opposition lawmakers have begun impeachment proceedings against President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to impose martial law. The country woke up to an uncertain reality on Wednesday after a night of unprecedented scenes which saw Yoon unexpectedly impose martial law, 190 lawmakers gather to vote it down, and a sudden reversal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}