South Korean lawmakers began voting Saturday on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, who plunged the country into a crisis with a short-lived martial law decree.
The opposition needed at least eight legislators from Mr. Yoon’s governing People Power Party to abandon support for their leader. As the vote was held, tens of thousands of protesters were camped outside the National Assembly, demanding Mr. Yoon be removed.
Mr. Yoon faces impeachment on charges including insurrection, 11 days after he sent military troops into the legislature, triggering national outrage and plunging the country into political turmoil. His attempt to place his country under military rule for the first time in 45 years lasted only six hours.
Last Saturday, opposition lawmakers fell short after Mr. Yoon’s party boycotted the vote, saying that he should be given a chance to resign rather than be impeached. Only three of its 108 lawmakers participated.
But things look more uncertain for Mr. Yoon after he indicated on Thursday that he would not step down and will instead fight the National Assembly’s attempt to oust him. The number of governing party lawmakers who have said they would vote for his impeachment had grown to seven.
After a meeting before the vote, ruling party lawmakers said their policy of opposing Mr. Yoon’s impeachment remained unchanged. But the party’s lawmakers participated in the vote rather than repeat last week’s boycott.
No matter the outcome on the vote, the political turmoil and uncertainty unleashed by Mr. Yoon’s declaration of martial law will continue. The opposition has said it will call votes every Saturday until Mr. Yoon is removed from office.
If Mr. Yoon is impeached, he would be suspended from office until the country’s Constitutional Court rules whether to reinstate or formally oust him. The court’s deliberations could last up to six months. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the No. 2 official in the government hierarchy and who holds no real political power because he is not an elected official, would be expected to step in as the interim leader.
“History will remember your choice,” Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader, told governing party lawmakers on Friday. “What you should defend is not Yoon Suk Yeol, not your own party, but the livelihoods of people who are out on the cold streets crying for his impeachment.”
Thousands of protesters marched earlier Saturday toward the Assembly. On a crisp but sunny day, they snaked through the streets of Seoul, hoisting flags and chanting for the arrest of the president. Protest songs blared through loudspeakers.
“I’ve been coming every day since martial law was declared,” said Kim Yeon-sook, 59, who danced to the music while holding a sign that read “Arrest Yoon!”
“He needs to be impeached and arrested,” she said. “If Yoon is impeached today, I think I’ll fly.”
Kim Sang-jin, 34, said he had come to the protests twice in the past week. “I’m here as a citizen to represent the solidarity of the nation’s people,” he said, adding that impeachment was a necessity for South Korean democracy.
Opposition lawmakers gave speeches and musical performances took place while the nation counted down to the vote. Many protesters sat down near booths providing food, coffee and hand warmers.
In their impeachment bill, opposition lawmakers argued that Mr. Yoon’s declaration of martial law violated the Constitution, which they said allowed him to use it only in times of war, armed conflict or other national emergencies. They also accused Mr. Yoon of perpetrating an insurrection by sending special forces troops into the Assembly in an attempt to block lawmakers from voting down the martial law order, as it is allowed to do under the Constitution.
That night, as the troops broke windows and barged into the Assembly, parliamentary aides and citizens put up resistance, spraying fire extinguishers and building barricades with furniture. They bought time for legislators to gather and strike down the martial law, forcing Mr. Yoon to retract it.
Insurrection is a crime that is punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment for anyone found by the court to be a ringleader. The charge is also at the center of an investigation by police and prosecutors into Mr. Yoon’s botched attempt to rule the country by martial law.
They have barred Mr. Yoon from leaving the country. He faces the possibility of becoming the first president to be arrested while in office. His former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, and the former chiefs of the national police and the Seoul metropolitan police have already been arrested on charges of helping carry out insurrection.
Mr. Yoon’s popularity rating has plunged to 11 percent, a record low, according to a Gallup Korea poll released on Friday. In the survey, 75 percent of the respondents supported impeaching Mr. Yoon, and 71 percent said they considered Mr. Yoon guilty of insurrection.
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