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full screen President Yoon Suk-Yeol at the speech on Thursday night Swedish time. Photo: Ahn Young-Joon/AP/TT
South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeols believes his controversial decision to declare a state of emergency and impose martial law should be considered an act aimed at “ruling” the country and not an attempted coup.
He claims that in a televised speech on Thursday.
– I will fight to the end to prevent the forces and criminal groups responsible for paralyzing the country’s parliament, says the president.
The comments indicate he has no plans to resign. At the same time, the leader of the ruling party, Yoon’s own party, says that it now stands behind impeaching the president, reports Yonhap.
Yoon declared a state of emergency on Tuesday last week, but was forced to back down just six hours later after the 190 members who rushed to parliament voted unanimously against it.
Since then, pressure on the president to leave office has steadily increased. On Saturday, Yoon apologized, but without resigning. Later that day, he escaped impeachment in parliament after his party colleagues boycotted the vote.
South Korea’s opposition leader has stated that he will seek to impeach President Yoon in a new vote on December 14.