Ruckus In South Korea parliament: 2 Presidents Removed By Impeachment

• By Thetripurapost Web Desk, Seoul
• Dec 27, 2024
• 439

On Friday, South Korea's parliament impeached and removed Prime Minister and acting President Han Duk-soo from his post. 192 votes were cast in favour of his removal, while 151 votes were needed for this. There was a lot of commotion in the parliament due to the impeachment. Due to this, the MPs grabbed each other's collars.

Not a single vote was cast against the impeachment motion brought against the acting President as the ruling party boycotted the voting.

Now Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok will take over as acting president. Choi Sang had openly opposed the imposition of martial law on December 3. He had described it as disastrous for the country's economy.

Yoon Suk Yol imposed emergency (martial law) in the country on December 3. However, due to the efforts of the opposition, it remained in force for only 6 hours. The opposition party declared the martial law proposal illegal through voting in the Parliament.

After this, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yol was impeached and removed. After this, Han Duk-soo was made the acting president on December 14, but he could remain in this post for only 13 days.

There was a lot of uproar during the voting in the South Korean parliament on Friday. Actually, the speaker said that 50% of the MPs' votes would be required to remove the acting president. In such a situation, the acting president could have been removed by the voting of only 151 MPs. The opposition parties have 192 seats in the parliament. In such a situation, it became easy to remove the acting president.

The ruling party, which has only 108 seats, opposed it. Earlier, 200 seats were needed to remove President Yoon. After the impeachment was successful, acting President Han said that he respects the decision of the Parliament. But he will wait for the decision of the Supreme Court.

Yoon Suk Yol, who imposed emergency in South Korea, has been removed from office through impeachment. However, the approval of the Supreme Court is necessary to remove him from office completely. If 6 out of 9 judges of the Supreme Court give a verdict in his favour, then he will again become the next President of the country.

The problem here is that currently there are only 6 judges in the Supreme Court of South Korea. In such a situation, even one judge can vote in favor of Yoon Suk Yol and make him the President of the country again. This is the reason why the opposition party wants to fill the 3 vacant seats in the Supreme Court, but acting President Han Duk-soo refused to do so.

There are a total of 300 seats in the South Korean parliament. In the elections held earlier this year, the public gave a huge mandate to the opposition party DPK. The ruling People Power got only 108 seats, while the opposition party DPK got 170 seats. Due to being in majority, the opposition DPK was interfering a lot in the functioning of the President's government, and they were not able to work according to their agenda.

President Yol won the election in 2022 by a narrow margin. Since then his popularity has been declining. His image was also affected due to his wife being embroiled in many controversies. Currently, the President's popularity is around 17%, which is the lowest among all the presidents of the country.

To deal with all this, the President imposed martial law. He accused the DPK of sympathizing with North Korea and being involved in anti-national activities.

After President Yeol announced martial law, the entire opposition reached the parliament within a short time. To repeal the martial law, there should be more than 150 MPs in the parliament. By the time the army reached to take over the parliament, enough MPs had reached the parliament and the proceedings had begun.

However, the army tried to stop the proceedings. Many opposition MPs who were going to vote in the parliament were taken into custody. The soldiers started breaking the windows of the parliament to enter inside, but by the time the soldiers reached inside, 190 out of 300 MPs of the National Assembly voted down the President's proposal for martial law.

According to the constitution of South Korea, if the majority of MPs in the parliament demand the removal of martial law in the country, then the government will have to accept it. Opposition leaders benefited from this provision of the constitution and the army had to stop its action.

The army immediately evacuated the parliament and returned. There were helicopters above the parliament and military tanks deployed on the road, they had to go back.