South Korean president is under martial law investigation, impeachment

SEOUL: Defending his decision to impose martial law in the country, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he will fight regardless of an investigation, possible impeachment.

In a televised speech on Thursday, President Yoon said: “I will fight to the end (…) Whether they impeach me or investigate me, I will face everything.”

Claiming North Korea had rigged the country’s election, he defended his short-lived martial law as a legal move to protect democracy and said the opposition was “damaging the sword dance of madness” by trying to oust a president democratically elected. .

His comments, the first since he apologized on Saturday and vowed to leave his fate in the hands of his political allies, came as the leader of his ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) said if Yoon did not resign , he must be dismissed.

“I propose to adopt a vote of impeachment as party policy (…) His speech was akin to confessing to insurrection,” PPP leader Han Dong-hoon told a meeting of party members, in the latest sign that the president loses his. seize power.

President Yoon faces a second impeachment vote in parliament, which is expected on Saturday, a week after the first failed, as the majority of the ruling party boycotted the proceedings.

If successful, the case will go to the Constitutional Court to determine the legitimacy of Yoon’s presidency, a process that could leave Asia’s fourth-largest economy and key US ally in political limbo for up to six months.

The president is also being investigated for alleged insurrection over his Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, which he revoked hours later, triggering South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades.

In comments that reflected his justification for declaring emergency rule in the first place, Yoon said “criminal groups” that have crippled state affairs and disrupted the rule of law must be stopped at all costs from taking over the government.

He was referring to the opposition Democratic Party, which has blocked some of his proposals and raised allegations of government wrongdoing, but has shown no evidence of criminal activity.

A member of the Democratic Party leadership, Kim Min-seok, said Yoon’s speech was a “demonstration of extreme delusion” and called on members of the president’s ruling party to vote to impeach him.

Electoral hacking

The president also spoke at length about an alleged hack by communist-led North Korea of ​​the National Election Commission (NEC) last year, again without citing evidence.

He said the attack was detected by intelligence agencies, but the commission, an independent agency, refused to cooperate fully in its investigation and inspection of the system.

The hack called into question the integrity of the April 2024 election — which his party lost in a landslide — and prompted him to declare martial law, he added.

The NEC said it consulted with the National Intelligence Service last year to address “security vulnerabilities” but election manipulation was “effectively impossible”.

Troops entered the election commission’s computer server room after Yoon’s martial law declaration, officials said and showed closed-circuit TV footage, but it was unclear if they removed any equipment.

Yoon’s party suffered a crushing defeat in the April election, giving the Democratic Party overwhelming control of the unicameral assembly.

Even so, the opposition still needs eight PPP members to vote with them to impeach the president.

Yoon defended his decision to declare martial law as a “symbolic” move aimed at exposing an opposition plot to “completely destroy the country” and collapse the alliance with the US.