SEOUL, Dec 13 — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said yesterday he would “fight to the end” as his own political party shifted closer to voting with the opposition to impeach him over his short-lived martial law order that threw the US ally into turmoil.
In a lengthy televised address, he alleged that North Korea had hacked South Korea’s election commission, casting doubt on his party’s landslide election defeat in April.
Yoon, whose country has Asia’s fourth-largest economy, hopes political allies will rally to support him but this appeared less likely after his address. The leader of his ruling People Power Party (PPP) said the time had come for Yoon to resign or be impeached by parliament.
Late yesterday, six opposition parties led by the Democratic Party submitted a bill for Yoon’s impeachment to parliament. A vote is expected on Saturday, a week after the first one failed because most PPP members boycotted it.
At least seven members of the party were expected to support the new impeachment motion. At least eight PPP votes are needed for the two-thirds majority required to impeach Yoon.
Yoon said the opposition was “dancing the sword dance of madness” by trying to drag a democratically elected president from power, nine days after his aborted attempt to grant sweeping powers to the military.
“I will fight to the end,” he said. “Whether they impeach me or investigate me, I will face it all squarely”.
His defiance raise the possibility that Yoon, a career prosecutor and a legal expert, may have decided to take his chances to court, hoping to make a comeback.
A vote to impeach Yoon would send the case to the Constitutional Court, which has up to six months to decide whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.
Yoon is separately under criminal investigation for alleged insurrection over the December 3 martial law declaration, which he rescinded hours later, triggering South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades and sending economic and diplomatic shockwaves.
Yesterday, the US Forces Korea said on X Commander Paul LaCamera had spoken to South Korea’s acting defence minister to reassure Seoul over USFK’s readiness to respond to external threats while respecting South Korea’s sovereignty.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.
— Reuters
