Yoon replaces the defense minister as South Korea's parliament nears a vote on their impeachments
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president replaced his defense minister Thursday as opposition parties moved to impeach both men over the stunning yet short-lived imposition of martial law that brought armed troops into Seoul streets.
The main opposition Democratic Party and other small opposition parties submitted a joint motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday over his martial law declaration the previous night. Martial law lasted about six hours, as the National Assembly quickly voted to overrule the president, forcing his Cabinet to lift it before daybreak Wednesday.
On Thursday, Yoon’s office said he decided to replace Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun with Choi Byung Hyuk, a retired four-star general who is South Korea’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho will be the acting minister until Choi assumes the job after a parliamentary hearing. The hearing is a formality as the president holds the power to appoint ministers outside of the prime minister without the approval of lawmakers.
Yoon’s office didn’t provide any further comments by him. He hasn’t appeared in public since he announced in a televised address that his government was lifting the martial law declaration.
The opposition parties earlier submitted a separate motion to impeach Kim, alleging he recommended that Yoon impose martial law. Kim had offered to resign and apologized for causing disruption and concern to the public. Kim said “all troops who performed duties related to martial law were acting on my instructions, and all responsibility lies with me,” according to the Defense Ministry.
The impeachment motion against Yoon was introduced in parliament early Thursday, meaning it can be put to a vote between Friday and Sunday. It will be scrapped if it isn’t voted within 72 hours of its parliamentary introduction, but a new motion can be submitted if the current one is scrapped or voted down, according to National Assembly officials.
Jo Seoung-lae, spokesperson of the Democratic Party, said it will push for a National Assembly vote on the impeachment motion on Saturday evening, to provide sufficient time for the conservative lawmakers to contemplate their decisions on what he described as an “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.”
On Friday, the Democrats and other opposition lawmakers voted to impeach Choi Jae-hae, chairman of the country’s board of audit and inspection, and three top public prosecutors, including Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office chief Lee Chang-soo. The four will be suspended from their duties until the Constitutional Court rules whether to remove them from office. Members of the Yoon's ruling conservative People Power Party boycotted the votes, leaving the totals overwhelming over the threshhold to impeach them.
The Democratic Party’s continued impeachment attempts of senior government officials and prosecutors have been a major source of conflict with Yoon, who during his martial law announcement accused the opposition of “anti-state activities” and “paralyzing the government.”
Prospects for Yoon’s impeachment isn’t clear as Yoon's People Power Party decided Thursday to oppose the motion’s passage. Choo Kyung-ho, the floor leader of the PPP, told reporters that his party would hold another meeting to determine how to oppose the motion’s passage. Observers say PPP members could simply boycott a floor vote or cast ballots against the motion.
Impeaching him would require support from two-thirds of the National Assembly, or 200 of its 300 members. The opposition parties together have 192 seats and they need additional votes from the PPP. Some experts earlier said the motion will likely be passed through parliament as 18 PPP lawmakers, who belong to an anti-Yoon faction in the party, already voted down Yoon’s martial law decree together with opposition lawmakers.
But speaking to reporters Thursday, PPP leader Han Dong-hun, head of the anti-Yoon faction, said he would work to ensure that the impeachment motion doesn’t pass though he remains critical of Yoon’s action, which he described as “unconstitutional.” Han said that there is a need to “prevent damage to citizens and supporters caused by unprepared chaos.”
Experts say rival factions in PPP could unite not to repeat their traumatic experiences following the 2016 impeachment of scandal-ridden conservative President Park Geun-hye, which happened after some lawmakers at her own party voted to impeach her. Park was eventually removed from office and arrested in 2017, and the liberals easily won the presidency in a by-election as conservatives remained in disarray.
If Yoon is impeached, he will be deprived of his constitutional powers until the Constitutional Court rules. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who holds the No. 2 position in the South Korean government, would take over presidential responsibilities.
The impeachment motion on Yoon accuses him of attempting a “self-coup” by mobilizing the military. It also says Yoon’s declaration failed to meet the constitutional requirements that such steps should only be considered in severe crisis situations. The motion also argues that his move to declare a suspension of political party activities and deploy troops in an attempt to seal the National Assembly amounted to rebellion.
During a parliamentary hearing on Thursday, Kim Seon Ho, the vice defense minister and acting defense chief, said he wasn’t informed about Yoon’s decision to impose martial law until the announcement was reported by the media.
He said he didn’t know who wrote the military proclamation announced after Yoon’s martial law declaration, which stated that the activities of political parties will be suspended, but said it didn’t come from the defense ministry. He said the decision to deploy troops to the National Assembly came from the former minister, Kim Yong Hyun.
“I had fundamentally opposed the deployment of troops over this martial law and I expressed a negative opinion about it,” said Kim Seon Ho, without elaborating further. “I would like to apologize to our citizens once again, and, on a personal level, I feel devastated.”
Yoon’s martial law declaration harkened to South Korea’s past military-backed governments when martial law and other decrees were proclaimed that allowed them to station soldiers and tanks on streets to prevent anti-government demonstrations. Until Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, such scenes of military intervention had not been seen since South Korea became a democracy in the late 1980s.
It wasn’t clear how the 190 lawmakers were able to enter the National Assembly to vote down Yoon’s martial law decree while soldiers in full battle gear encircled the building. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik were seen climbing over walls. Troops and police officers blocked some lawmakers from entering but didn’t aggressively restrain or use force against others.
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