South Korea opposition considering move to impeach acting president

Following impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, Democratic Party to decide whether to submit a bill to impeach Han Duck-soo.

South Korea’s main opposition is considering a move to impeach the country’s acting President Han Duck-soo.

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) will wait until later this week to decide whether to submit a bill to impeach Han, a party lawmaker said on Tuesday, hours after party spokesperson Yoon Jong-kun said the bill would be submitted today.

“We have decided to exercise patience, taking into account the sentiments of the people, and wait until the 26th [Thursday] to determine whether our demands are met,” DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said.

The developments come amid opposition demands that Han sign into law special bills to investigate his impeached predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol.

The country is still reeling from Yoon’s short-lived bid to impose martial law on December 3, which he partly blamed on the opposition’s propensity to impeach government officials.

Prime Minister Han took over from Yoon, who was impeached on December 14 and faces a Constitutional Court review on whether to oust him or restore his powers.

If an impeachment bill is submitted, it must be voted on within 24-72 hours after being introduced at a plenary session in parliament.

If introduced, the new impeachment bill “could be voted upon as early as Friday or Saturday”, explained Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul.

“Should it go through, the third in line is the finance minister, the deputy prime minister who would then take over. So all of this threatens to cause further instability and political vacuum,” McBride added.

With a majority in parliament, the DP had initially demanded that Han approve bills calling for special prosecutors to investigate Yoon for rebellion over his martial law decree, and his wife for corruption and other allegations, by Tuesday.

But Han did not put the bills on the cabinet’s agenda, instead calling for the ruling and opposition parties to negotiate more.

DP floor leader Park then responded that there was no room for negotiations about a Yoon investigation.

Han’s stance “left us no other option but to interpret it as his intention to continue the insurrection by delaying proceedings”, Park told an earlier press briefing, adding that his party would “initiate impeachment proceedings against Han”.

The opposition says it needs only a simple majority in the 300-member parliament to impeach Han, as this is the threshold for a cabinet member.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP), however, argues that a two-thirds majority is required since Han is currently serving as acting president.

Yoon is currently under investigation by a joint team comprising police, the defence ministry, and anticorruption investigators.

Yoon’s defence minister, police chief and several other senior military commanders have already been arrested over the deployment of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, which prompted a dramatic standoff that ended when lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and voted unanimously to overrule Yoon’s decree.

On Monday, Yoon refused a summons for questioning for the second time, an investigation team said, after he snubbed a previous one last week.

The Constitutional Court has up to six months to decide Yoon’s fate. If he is removed from office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within two months.