South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, threatened with dismissal after his attempt to impose martial law a week ago, said Thursday, December 12, that he would “fight until the last minute”, accusing the opposition to causing “a national crisis”. The opposition-controlled Parliament, which plans to submit a new motion to vote on Saturday to remove him from office, “has become a monster destroying the constitutional order of liberal democracy”, lambasted Yoon Suk-yeol in a televised speech. “I will fight with the people until the last minute,” insisted the conservative leader, whose popularity plunged to 13% after his coup.
Since his election in 2022 with the narrowest margin in the country’s history against the leader of the Democratic Party, Yoon Suk-yeol has never had a majority in the Assembly. Citing in particular difficulties in passing his budget, he stunned the country by imposing martial law by surprise on the night of December 3 to 4, before being forced to repeal it six hours later under pressure from Parliament and from the street.
He narrowly escaped a motion for dismissal by the National Assembly on Saturday, saved by his party. But the Democratic Party has set a second vote in this direction for Saturday 5:00 p.m. local time (9:00 a.m. French time). If eight MPs from Yoon Suk-yeol’s People Power Party (PPP) support this new motion, it could be adopted. At the first attempt on December 7, only two voted for the motion. Since Tuesday, three others have announced that they will join.
Investigation for “rebellion”
“I apologize again to those people who must have been surprised and worried due to martial law […] Please believe in my warm loyalty to the people,” the president said Thursday, assuring that he “would not shirk (his) legal and political responsibility regarding the proclamation of martial law.”
Targeted by an investigation for “rebellion”, Yoon Suk-yeol, 63, is prohibited from leaving the territory, just like his former ministers of Defense and Interior, and the commander of the brief martial law. Two senior police officials were also arrested.
On Wednesday, South Korean police said they were obstructed in a search of presidential offices. The Democratic Party has warned that it will file a complaint for insurrection against its services if they continue to obstruct the application of the law. A new attempt to search the presidency was launched early Thursday afternoon, the national Yonhap agency reported. In the morning, the police also announced a search of the army headquarters in the capital, in connection with its role during martial law.
Thousands of demonstrators
Popular pressure remains strong: thousands of demonstrators gathered Wednesday evening in front of Parliament, singing K-pop songs while brandishing colorful light sticks and signs demanding the dissolution of the PPP “which supports the insurrection”.
On Tuesday, a PPP working group proposed a road map on the president’s removal. She envisages the resignation of Yoon Suk-yeol in February or March, with a new presidential election in April or May. This plan has not yet been accepted by the entire PPP. Even if that were the case, it is unlikely that the opposition would give up trying to remove the president from office. According to the PPP, the latter left governance to its party and to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
During martial law, helicopters and soldiers were deployed to parliament to prevent deputies from meeting there and voting to lift it. But 190 of them managed to enter and unanimously adopt the end of this state of exception. The then-former Defense Minister, Kim Yong-hyun, was accused by opposition lawmakers of ordering drones to be sent to Pyongyang, apparently to create a casus belli with the North that would have justified martial law. Incarcerated since Sunday in particular for “abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights”, Kim Yong-hyun, according to the authorities, attempted suicide in detention on Tuesday evening.