South Korea’s governing party chief expressed support Friday for suspending the constitutional powers of President Yoon Suk Yeol for imposing martial law this week, in a bombshell reversal that makes Yoon’s impeachment more likely.
Opposition parties are pushing for a parliamentary vote on Yoon’s impeachment on Saturday, calling his short-lived martial law declaration an “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.”
But they need support from some members of the president’s People Power Party to get the two-thirds majority required to pass the impeachment motion. The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s nighttime martial law decree has frozen South Korean politics and caused worry among neighbors, including fellow democracy Japan, and Seoul's top ally, the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.
During a party meeting, PPP leader Han Dong-hun stressed the need to suspend Yoon’s presidential duties and power swiftly, saying he poses a “significant risk of extreme actions, like reattempting to impose martial law, which could potentially put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger.”
Han said he had received intelligence that Yoon had ordered the country's defence counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities” during the brief period martial law was in force.
“It’s my judgment that an immediate suspension of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official duties is necessary to protect the Republic of Korea and its people,” Han said.
In a closed-door briefing to lawmakers, Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, said Yoon called him on the phone after imposing martial law and read out a long list of politicians he wanted detained. They included Han, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, said Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting. Kim said Hong told lawmakers he ignored Yoon’s orders.
Speaking to reporters at the National Assembly, the spy agency’s director, Cho Taeyong, questioned Hong’s account. Cho said such an order would have come to him, rather than Hong, and that he never received any orders from Yoon to detain politicians.
Han earlier said he would work to defeat the impeachment motion even though he criticized Yoon’s martial law declaration as “unconstitutional.” Han said there was a need to “prevent damage to citizens and supporters caused by unprepared chaos.”
Thousands of protesters have marched in the streets Seoul since Wednesday, calling for Yoon to resign and be investigated. Thousands of autoworkers and other members of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, one of the country’s biggest umbrella labor groups, have started hourly strikes since Thursday to protest Yoon. The union said its members will start on indefinite strikes beginning on Dec. 11 if Yoon was still in office then.
Impeaching Yoon would require support from 200 of the National Assembly’s 300 members. The opposition parties who jointly brought the impeachment motion have 192 seats combined. PPP has 108 lawmakers.
In a televised statement, South Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho promised the ministry’s “active cooperation” with an investigation by prosecutors into the military’s role in Yoon’s martial law enforcement. He said military prosecutors will also be involved in the probe. He denied media speculation that Yoon and his military confidantes might consider imposing martial law a second time.
“Even if there’s a demand to enforce martial law, the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will absolutely not accept it,” Kim said.
Kim became the acting defense minister after Yoon’s office on Thursday accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who has been hit with a travel ban and faces an investigation over his role in Yoon’s imposition of martial law.
Opposition parties and Han allege that it was Kim Yong Hyun who recommended that Yoon take the step. During a parliamentary hearing on Thursday, Kim Seon Ho said Kim Yong Hyun also ordered troops to be deployed to the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law.
Han was previously regarded as a close associate of Yoon as they spent years working together as prosecutors and he served as Yoon’s first justice minister. But after Han entered party politics and became PPP leader, their ties soured badly as they
differed over how to handle scandals involving Yoon and his wife.