The Parliament of South Korea approved this Friday a motion presented by the opposition to remove Han Duck-sooprime minister and acting president for just two weeks, deepening the institutional crisis in which the country has been mired since the declaration of martial law at the beginning of the month.
Han Duck-soo replaced last December 14 to President Yoon Suk Yeolwho was removed for his controversial decision to impose martial law in the Asian country.
The impeachment against Han has been approved with 192 votes in favor and none againstafter the speaker of the National Assembly, Woo Won Shik, decided that the motion could be approved with a simple majorityas reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Thus, Woo rejected the arguments of the government party, the People’s Party (PPP), that the case be treated as a impeachment of a presidentwhich required a two-thirds majoritywhich was equivalent to 200 supports.
The opposition Democratic Party (PD), which has 170 of the 300 seats in Parliament, presented the motion on Thursday after Han stated that he would not appoint any Constitutional Court judge to fill the three vacant positions in the body – with a total of nine members – until the political parties reach a political compromise.
Nominations for the Constitutional Court have special relevance in the current political context, since The court must validate Yoon’s dismissalalready approved by Parliament after the imposition of martial law and the sending of soldiers to the legislature to prevent them from holding a session to revoke the measure.
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