After his surprising, clumsy and failed declaration of martial law, the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeolfaces a motion of censure in Parliament this Saturday. For it to move forward, it needs two thirds of its 300 deputies, that is, 200. At the moment, the opposition has the 170 seats of its main force, the Democratic Party (PD)plus another 22 from minority groups. With 192 votes secured, he needs at least eight from the ruling party, the People’s Power Party (PPP)to take down President Yoon. Although some already joined the opposition in the emergency session held early Wednesday morning to reject martial law, it remains to be seen if they will do so again in this motion of no confidence.
In principle, the leader of the PPP, Han Dong-hoonhad announced that he would block said motion “not to defend President Yoon, but to prevent chaos.” But, after speaking with him this Friday, he reaffirmed his initial idea that he leave power as soon as possible. «Given the new facts revealed, I believe that President Yoon Suk-yeol needs to be quickly suspended of their obligations to protect the Republic of Korea and its people,” Han announced at an emergency meeting of his party leadership in the National Assembly, according to the agency. Yonhap. With this comment, he would be giving clues about a possible change in the ruling party, which could vote in favor of dismissing Yoon.
Specifically, the “new facts revealed” are that the president ordered the arrest of the country’s main political figures after declaring martial law on Tuesday night for being “elements against the State.” Among them were not only the leader of the opposition, Lee Jae-myungbut also the head of his own party, Han Dong-hoon, and the speaker of the National Assembly, Woo Won-shik.
In a parliamentary committee after the attempted self-coup, this was confirmed by the first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, Hong Jang-wonas confirmed to journalists by one of the opposition deputies. As he revealed, President Yoon called him and ordered him to “take advantage of this opportunity to arrest them all and get rid of them.”
For this reason, the leader of the ruling party warned that there were “possibilities that the president would once again carry out some radical action”, such as a new declaration of martial law to cling to power.
That fear, along with rumors of strange troop movements, once again triggered the alert in South Korea, which has no shortage of scares in this heart-stopping week. Trying to calm the population, the acting Minister of Defense, Kim Seon-hocalled an urgent press conference to deny the alarm. «Rumors about signs of another declaration of martial law are not true. Even if there is an order to decree it, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff will never accept it,” he stated bluntly.
Kim, who was vice minister, has taken charge of Defense after its head, Kim Yong-hyunhas resigned after assuming responsibility that it was he who proposed declaring martial law to President Yoon. In addition to apologizing to society, the acting minister has prohibited the Army from destroying or manipulating official documents, since they can be used for investigations opened by the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigations by the Police and the Prosecutor’s Office
To this end, the Police have formed a team of 120 agents who will investigate the complaints filed against President Yoon for treason, mutiny and abuse of power in his declaration of martial law, which was aborted by popular mobilization and Parliament. Along with him, three other key figures will be investigated: the head of the National Police, Cho Ji-ho; your commissioner in Seoul, Kim Bong-sik; and the person in charge of law enforcement in the National Assembly, Mok Hyung-tae. In order to determine their responsibility, their phones have already been seized to verify the calls they made before, during and after the declaration of martial law. Along with them, three senior military officials have been suspended: the head of the Capital Defense Command, lieutenant general Lee Jin-woo; the head of the Special Combat Command, lieutenant general Kwak Jong-keun; and the Counterintelligence Commander, Lieutenant General Yeo In-hyung.
In addition, the Public Ministry has formed another group of fifty investigators, who will be joined by a dozen military prosecutors to help in the investigations. The last time teams of this magnitude were formed was in 2016, when the then president was investigated, Park Geun-hyefor the corruption and cronyism scandals that led to his parliamentary dismissal and prison sentence. The same path that it now seems that President Yoon is going to follow in trying to return the prosperous and democratic South Korea to the dark times of the dictatorship.
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