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South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was impeached by the National Assembly last week after his failed attempt to impose martial law.
The opposition party, which has a majority in parliament, needed the support of only eight of the 108 members of the president’s People Power Party to secure the necessary two-thirds majority. The motion passed by a landslide vote of 204-85.
Yun survived an impeachment motion last Saturday after lawmakers from his conservative PPP party boycotted the vote. But the mood within the party began to turn against him on Thursday after a speech in which he blasted his critics and vowed to “fight to the end.”
The People’s Party’s official position has been to oppose Yoon’s impeachment, but party leader Han Dong-hoon announced Thursday that party members should vote “based on their own beliefs and conscience” in Saturday’s secret ballot. .
Mr. Yoon’s impeachment must be approved by South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which is supposed to issue a decision within 180 days of the parliamentary vote, but this deadline is not binding.
In the meantime, Yoon will be suspended and constitutional powers will be temporarily transferred to Prime Minister Han Do-soo, a career engineer appointed by Yoon.
The last president to be successfully impeached was conservative Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in 2017 following a bribery and influence scandal that sparked mass street protests.
This is a developing story
