New impeachment vote looms for Yoon over failed martial law bid

A second motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his botched martial law declaration was reported to the National Assembly on Friday, with the nation reeling from Yoon’s Dec. 3 invocation of martial law that triggered unprecedented political turmoil.

Yoon has remained defiant, saying Thursday that declaring martial law was “within the realm of executive authority, which is not subject to judicial review,” and he would fight “until the last moment.”

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and other opposition parties had originally planned to begin voting on the motion as of 5 p.m. Saturday, but the office of National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik brought forward the timing to 4 p.m.

DP leader Lee Jae-myung urged ruling party lawmakers to vote in favor of the motion, stressing that impeachment is the “fastest and surest way to end this chaos.”

At least eight lawmakers from the ruling party are needed to vote Saturday if the second impeachment motion is passed. So far, seven ruling party lawmakers have publicly said they would do so.

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 first motion to impeach Yoon was scrapped last Saturday as most ruling party lawmakers boycotted the vote. Following the scrapping of the first motion, the DP vowed to push for the passage of Yoon’s impeachment every week.

The second motion includes allegations that martial law troops and police attempted to arrest lawmakers under the leadership of the president.

Allegations against first lady Kim Keon Hee, including her suspected involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and interference in election nominations through a power broker, have been removed from the latest motion.

In another sign of mounting public outrage over the martial law bid, Yoon’s approval rating fell to a record low of 11 percent, according to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea on 1,002 adults.

In the same survey, 75 percent of respondents supported Yoon’s impeachment, while 21 percent opposed it.

If the motion is passed, the Constitutional Court will decide whether to reinstate or remove Yoon from office.

If upheld by the court, Yoon would be the second president in South Korea’s history to be removed from office through impeachment after former President Park Geun-hye in 2017.