Written by Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said on Friday that the best way to restore order in the country was to impeach President Yeon Suk-yul, a day before a planned parliamentary vote on whether Yeon would impose martial law for a short period. .
Yoon's move to impose military rule on December 3 was canceled after just six hours, but it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and widespread calls for him to step down for breaking the law.
The embattled president survived an initial impeachment attempt a week ago when the People Power party boycotted the vote, preventing a quorum.
At least seven members of the PPP have since announced their intention to support impeachment on Saturday, closing in on the eight votes needed for the PPP to reach the 200-vote threshold alongside 192 lawmakers from the opposition party.
Yoon on Thursday vowed to “struggle to the end,” blaming the opposition party for paralyzing the government and claiming that North Korea's hacking of the election commission put his party's crushing defeat in April's parliamentary elections in doubt.
Democratic Party leader Lee described Yoon's remarks as a “declaration of war” against the people. “I have proven that impeachment is the quickest and most effective way to end the confusion,” he said.
Yoon survived the first attempt to remove him last Saturday when most members of the ruling People Power Party boycotted the vote. Since then, at least seven members of the PPP have publicly supported the impeachment vote.
Opposition parties have submitted another draft law to impeach the president and plan to hold a vote on it at 4 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday.
Lee called on members of the Pakistan People's Party to “join and vote yes in favor of impeachment,” saying that “history will remember and record your decision.” A vote to remove Yoon would send the case to the Constitutional Court, which has up to six months to decide whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.
Yoon's defiant speech on Thursday came under further criticism, including his claim that a North Korean hack last year may have compromised the National Election Commission's computer system, without evidence.
Yoon noted that one of the reasons for declaring martial law was the commission's refusal to fully cooperate in examining the regulations, meaning that the integrity of the parliamentary elections held in April could not be guaranteed.
On Friday, the committee's Secretary-General, Kim Young-bin, denied the possibility of fraud in the election, saying that voting was conducted entirely by paper ballots, and the courts rejected all 216 allegations of irregularities raised as baseless.
Yoon is separately under criminal investigation for alleged rebellion over the declaration of martial law.
Diplomatic and economic repercussions
South Korean stocks rose for the fourth straight session on Friday on hopes that political uncertainty will ease after this weekend's parliamentary vote on the impeachment of the president.
The Finance Ministry said the authorities will take further measures to stabilize markets if volatility increases excessively after Saturday's vote result.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul told Parliament that South Korea's diplomatic position had been “severely damaged” by the martial law decree.
Cho said he told Yoon in a brief ministerial meeting before the announcement that the move would have diplomatic repercussions and could undo many of the achievements made in the decades since South Korea's founding.
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said last week that Yoon's decree was viewed as “deeply problematic” and “illegitimate.”
But the United States and other Western partners, many of whom previously hailed Yun as a champion of democracy in Asia, have largely remained silent, beyond expressing general concerns about stability and praising Yun's decision to rescind his order.
A Western diplomat in Seoul told Reuters that working-level meetings with their South Korean counterparts have continued largely unaffected by the political crisis, but the diplomatic community is watching closely to see if the situation will deteriorate.
Yoon's potential ouster comes as South Korea faces the task of dealing with the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has clashed with the former South Korean president over trade and payment for US troops stationed in the country.
