South Korea’s acting president faces impeachment vote as currency plunges

Main opposition Democratic Party’s bid to suspend acting leader Han Duck-soo plunges country into further uncertainty.

South Korea’s legislature is set to vote on the impeachment of its acting president as ongoing turmoil in Asia’s fourth-largest economy sent the won plunging to levels not seen since the 2007-2009 global financial crisis.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is pushing to impeach Han Duck-soo, the prime minister, in a vote at the National Assembly on Friday after accusing the acting president of being complicit in an attempted insurrection by suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The DP, which holds 170 seats in the 300-member legislature, submitted the impeachment motion on Thursday after Han refused to fill three judicial vacancies on the court set to adjudicate Yoon’s impeachment trial following his short-lived declaration of martial law.

Han’s People Power Party (PPP) has argued that only the elected president has the authority to appoint justices to the Constitutional Court.

At least six judges on the court must uphold Yoon’s impeachment to remove him from office.

The court currently only has six justices following the retirement of three judges earlier this year, meaning that the bench would have to deliver a unanimous ruling to strip Yoon of the presidency.

The court is set to hold its first hearing on Yoon’s impeachment on Friday and could take up to six months to deliver its ruling.

Yoon, who has defended his martial law declaration as legal and aimed at tackling “anti-state forces”, is also under criminal investigation on suspicion of insurrection and abuse of power.

The bid to impeach Han, less than two weeks after he took up his role following Yoon’s impeachment, plunges South Korea into further political uncertainty as the country is still reeling from Yoon’s martial law decree on December 4.

While a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly is required to impeach a sitting president, there is no consensus on whether the same threshold applies to an acting leader.

The PPP has argued that two-thirds of lawmakers must approve Han’s impeachment.

DP contends that he can be suspended if 151 lawmakers back impeachment since the constitution provides for the removal of Cabinet members by a simple majority vote.

With the DP, minor opposition parties and independents holding 192 seats, at least eight PPP lawmakers would need to cross the aisle to reach the two-thirds threshold.

If Han is impeached, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok will assume presidential duties.

Choi on Friday warned that impeaching Han would deal a serious blow to the country’s economic standing and urged the opposition to reconsider its bid.

“The economy and the people’s livelihoods are walking on thin ice under a national state of emergency, and it cannot cope with any greater political uncertainty that will result from another acting president assuming the acting presidency,” Choi said.

The South Korean won fell sharply against the US dollar on Friday, falling below 1,480 won for the first time since March 2009.