South Korea’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) denounced the Opposition-led impeachment of acting President Han Duck-soo as an attempt to bring down the government, saying that his impeachment should be nullified. The opposition-led National Assembly voted Friday to impeach Han less than two weeks after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached over his botched imposition of martial law on December 3.
Han was suspended from duties, with Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok assuming office as acting president. The impeachment motion against Han was introduced by the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) after he refused to appoint additional justices to the Constitutional Court that will adjudicate Yoon’s impeachment trial.
“The impeachment of Han should be nullified as it did not meet what is required for an impeachment of an acting president as well as the quorum for approval,” Seo Ji-young, a spokesperson at the PPP, said. “We are strongly denouncing the DP’s attempt to break down the government,” she said.
Denouncing National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik for proceeding with the impeachment vote with a simple majority, Seo said that his decision opened the way for incapacitating the administration and amounted to abuse of legislative powers, Yonhap news agency reported.
The PPP said that Friday’s vote was invalid as Woo announced the quorum for impeachment was a simple majority in the 300-member National Assembly, not a two-thirds majority. A simple majority applies to Cabinet members while two-thirds are required for the impeachment of the president.
Friday’s vote marked the first time in Korean history that an acting president has been impeached by parliament. Acting President Choi said on Friday that the government will do its best to focus on stabilising state affairs amid concerns that a deepening political turmoil could hurt the country’s diplomatic activity and rattle financial markets.
Choi, who also serves as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance Minister, stepped into the interim leadership role following the suspension of acting President Han Duck-soo’s duties by the National Assembly on Friday.
