The plane crash is the first major test for South Korea’s acting president, Choi Sang-mok, who had been appointed the interim leader only on Friday, as the country grapples with a political crisis at the highest levels.
Mr. Choi, who arrived at the site about 190 miles from Seoul around midday Sunday, ordered government agencies to mobilize all equipment and personnel available for rescue efforts, according to his office.
The leadership crisis started when President Yoon Suk Yeol made an ill-fated declaration of martial law earlier this month, setting off protests and the most serious constitutional crisis in the country since it democratized in the late 1980s.
Mr. Yoon was impeached by lawmakers on Dec. 14 over the martial law bid, leaving South Korea without an elected leader. At first, the prime minister, Han Duck-soo, served as acting president, but he, too, was impeached by lawmakers, on Friday, less than two weeks into his term.
That was when Mr. Choi, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, was named acting president. Like Mr. Han, Mr. Choi has no electoral mandate.
Mr. Choi had been a career bureaucrat, climbing the ranks at the finance ministry. He served as a deputy finance minister when former President Park Geun-hye was impeached and removed from office in 2017. He then left government until Mr. Yoon picked him as his presidential secretary for economic affairs in 2022 and later made him the finance minister.
The second major impeachment in two weeks meant that South Korea continued to be without a strong elected leader in charge of the government and military in one of Washington’s most important allies, at a time when the country is grappling with North Korea’s nuclear threats and economic challenges at home.
The political uncertainty has pushed business and consumer confidence lower and caused the currency, the won, to plunge.
A new government cannot be formed until the Constitutional Court decides whether to reinstate or formally oust Mr. Yoon. The court can take up to six months to reach its decision.
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