South Korea parliament votes to impeach interim president

South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach interim president Han Duck-soo. 192 of the 300 members of parliament voted in favor of his departure.

Han has announced that he will step aside in the interest of the country. This makes Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok the new acting president of the country. He had previously warned that all political unrest is damaging the South Korean economy.

The opposition accuses Han of frustrating the trial of his deposed predecessor Yoon Suk-yeol. Han felt that as interim president he was not authorized to appoint judges to the constitutional court, but without those appointments the impeachment process against Yoon could not possibly be completed.

Opposition leader Lee said in a fiery speech this morning that all “rebels” in politics must be dealt with, “only if this happens quickly can the country return to normal.”

Prime Minister Han became interim president when parliament impeached Yoon after an attempted power grab. Yoon declared a state of emergency on December 3 in an attempt to sideline parliament, but reversed the measure after widespread protests. Parliament then voted him out.

The political chaos increased further when the opposition made it clear yesterday that it did not appreciate Han’s reluctance to appoint judges. A complication was that it was not clear exactly how many votes were needed to remove him: a simple majority would be needed for prime minister, but two-thirds of the votes are needed for president.

This morning, the speaker of parliament decided that a two-thirds majority was not needed to remove Han. This led to fierce protests from Han’s party members in parliament, who stormed the lectern and shouted that there was tyranny and an illegitimate parliament.

Constitutional court’s turn

Afterwards, Han said he would step down pending a ruling from the constitutional court. The court has 180 days to determine whether Yoon was rightly removed or whether he should be reinstated. If the removal is confirmed, new elections will follow within 60 days.

Today was the first hearing of the constitutional court on Yoon’s removal. The judges said they wanted to speed up the process, although Yoon had recently ignored summonses from the court because he said he wanted to focus on the criminal case that is still pending against him.

Yoon did not have to be present this time, his lawyers said he would like to come to later hearings. The next trial date is scheduled for January 3.