Seoul: South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is set to introduce a new impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday over his failed bid to impose martial law, days after Yoon avoided impeachment because most ruling party lawmakers boycotted a vote.
The DP’s move comes after a motion to impeach Yoon was scrapped last Saturday due to a lack of quorum as nearly all lawmakers from Yoon’s ruling People Power Party boycotted the vote, reports Yonhap news agency.
Following the scrapping of the motion, the DP said it would continue to push for Yoon’s impeachment every week. The DP plans to report the second motion to the Assembly on Thursday and put it to a vote at a plenary session on Saturday.
By law, an impeachment motion must be put to a vote between 24 and 72 hours after it is reported to a plenary session. The second motion is expected to include allegations that Yoon directly ordered martial law troops to seal off the National Assembly and arrest lawmakers, amounting to an act of insurrection. Meanwhile, the National Assembly will hold a plenary session later in the day and question officials involved in the martial law declaration.
The opposition has requested the attendance of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho, Justice Minister Park Sung-jae and Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, among others. Opposition lawmakers plan to question them about a Cabinet meeting Yoon convened shortly before his declaration of martial law last Tuesday night, as well as how the Army Special Warfare Command and the Capital Defense Command came to break into the National Assembly.