South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has apologized for his short-lived attempt to impose martial law this week, promising that he would face up to the impeachment inquiry hours before parliament votes on the issue.
In a televised address to his nation, Yoon said he was “disturbed” by public concern and causing inconvenience, and vowed to try again to impose martial law. He said that he would allow the People’s Power Party (PPP) to define its own term and avoid responsibility for its legal and political actions.
Immediately after the speech, PPP leader Han Dong-hun said the resignation of the first president was necessary and he was no longer in a position to fulfill his role, according to a Yonhap national news report.
It is not clear whether the motion submitted by opposition lawmakers would get the two-thirds majority required by Yoon. But it seemed more after Han on Friday called for the suspension of legal powersdescribing him as unfit to hold office and capable of taking more extreme action, including renewed attempts to impose martial law.
Saying that Yoon would require the support of 200,000 members of the National Assembly. The opposition parties, which jointly led the movement, won 192 seats.
They need at least eight votes from Yoon’s PPP. On Wednesday, 18 of its members joined the vote unanimously repealed martial law 190-0, less than three hours after Yoon announced the measure on televisionsummoning opposition, calling the parliament “a den of criminals” clinging to the republic. The vote took place as hundreds of heavily armed men surrounded the National Assembly in an attempt to disrupt the vote and possibly detain key politicians.
The uproar over Yoon’s prodigious and ill-thought-out South Korean political paralysis and terror in diplomatic alliances, including Japan and Seoul’s neighboring ally, has triggered a political crisis in the United States, one of the strongest democracies in Asia. to overthrow his leader.
Opposition lawmakers claim that Yoon’s declaration of martial law was to the car and that the indictment of the movement was based on rebellion charges.
The PPP decided to resist the challenge of the assembly of legislators, despite pleas from Han, who is not a legislator and does not have a vote.
After a party meeting on Friday, Han stressed the need to quickly suspend Yoon’s presidential duties, saying he “could put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger.”
Han said he had received intelligence that during the short-term martial law commander Yoon had ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians on charges of “anti-state activities.”
Hong Jang-vic, the first acting director of South Korea’s national service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon had called after imposing martial law and ordered him to detain key politicians for the defense counterintelligence unit.
Targeted politicians included Han, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, and National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.
The defense ministry said it had suspended the defense’s counterintelligence chief, Yeo In-hyung, who suspected Han had issued an edict issued by Yoon to detain politicians. The ministry also suspended Lee Jin-woo, the chief of defense chief, and Kwak Jong-geun, the commander of the government’s special forces, over their obligations under martial law.
Former defense minister Kim Yong Hyun, who was accused of recommending Yoon to force martial law, has been placed on a travel ban and faces an investigation by prosecutors on charges of rebellion.
Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho, who became acting defense minister after Yoon accepted Kim’s resignation on Thursday, testified to parliament that it was Kim who deployed troops to the National Assembly after Yoon ordered martial law to be deployed.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report