Opposition parties float motion to impeach acting President Choi Sang-mok
Lawmakers of five opposition parties filed a motion to impeach acting President Choi Sang-mok on Friday, citing his failure to appoint a ninth Constitutional Court justice.
The parties, led by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, hold a combined 190 seats out of 300 at the National Assembly, which is enough to carry Choi's impeachment without additional votes.
The motion stated that Choi had defied the parliament's request to appoint a Constitutional Court justice and a Supreme Court justice; abetted Yoon's martial law declaration; and failed to name a parliament-backed independent prosecutor to look into Yoon's alleged insurrection despite the parliament passing a resolution to do so.
According to Rep. Han Min-soo of the Democratic Party on Friday, the impeachment motion could be passed with a simple majority because Choi is a public official who is not the president.
This means Choi could be impeached in the upcoming plenary session Thursday. Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Lee Ju-ho is next in line to take on the role of acting president, in accordance with South Korea's presidential line of succession.
The main opposition party previously led the parliament's impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. Since Yoon came to power in 2022 until Thursday, the opposition-led National Assembly has impeached 29 public officials in the Yoon administration, including Yoon himself.
Choi, who is the deputy prime minister and finance minister, has served as the acting president since late December following Han's Dec. 27 impeachment, which passed according to the threshold of 151 votes.
Earlier on Friday, the Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against Choi, for his alleged involvement in ex-president Park Geun-hye's high-profile corruption scandal that erupted in 2016.
In 2017, investigative authorities had dropped the case against Choi, but the party alleged that the authorities had "deliberately" decided not to bring Choi to a criminal trial. The party was seeking charges of bribery and blackmail, concerning Choi's alleged involvement in coercing 16 corporations into contributing to a foundation associated with Park's confidant Choi Soon-sil, who is now known by the name Choi Seo-won.
The ruling party and conservative figures condemned the opposition-led move.
People Power Party Floor Leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong told reporters Friday described the opposition party's action as "terrorism that vandalizes state affairs."
The opposition intends "not only to threaten Choi but also destroy the whole country," Kweon said.
Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo said in a Facebook post that the opposition party's impeachment spree "is reminiscent of the plot of 'Designated Survivor,'" referring to a US Netflix series about a disaster that wipes out almost everyone in the Cabinet.
Former ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon said Friday the process of impeachment "has been reduced to a cunning tool to suspend a public official, even though (the politicians responsible) know the official will not eventually be removed from the post."
The Constitutional Court has ruled on eight of the 29 officials impeached since May 2022. None fo the impeachments has been upheld.
The acting president has remained silent on whether he would appoint left-leaning senior judge Ma Eun-hyuk as the ninth justice of the Constitutional Court. Ma is one of the three nominated by the National Assembly, as Choi appointed two of the three — left-leaning Chung Kye-sun and right-leaning Cho Han-chang — as justices amid political gridlock over their nomination.
In February, the Constitutional Court found that Choi had a duty to name a ninth judge to the court, and that failing to do so would constitute a violation of the legislature's rights.
But Choi has yet to announce his appointment, as the court ruling indicated that it has no authority to mandate the acting president into taking action.
The court has been deliberating on the case for over three weeks since the trial ended in late February. Because of an injunction in place, upholding Yoon's impeachment motion requires a majority opinion of at least six justices, instead of the usual seven.
Amid gridlock, the opposition party ramped up pressure on Choi by pledging Thursday to move to impeach the defiant acting president. In response, Choi said to reporters via text message Thursday that he is preoccupied with state affairs in the face of global uncertainties and worrying about how his future as the acting president unfolds "is a mere extravagance."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Bills to probe Yoon, wife pass National Assembly
Bill on suspected interference in investigation of Marine's death also passed; Presidential office says 'there is very little reason' to veto them The ruling Democratic Party of Korea-controlled National Assembly on Thursday passed contentious bills mandating special counsel probes into charges and scandals surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee. Three probe bills reintroduced by the Democratic Party were approved during a parliamentary plenary vote held in the afternoon. One pushes to launch a permanent special counsel to investigate 11 charges tied to Yoon's failed martial bid in December; another seeks to mainly investigate Kim's alleged inappropriate interference in the People Power Party's candidate nomination process in previous general and by-elections as well as her luxury bag scandal; the third looks into the allegations that the Yoon administration interfered in the military's investigation into a young Marine's death in 2023. All three bills were passed in a 194-3 vote with one abstention, in a package deal. The move came a day after President Lee Jae-myung, who was the Democratic Party Chair, was sworn into office. He won Tuesday's early election, securing 49.42 percent of the vote against his rival and People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo, who saw 41.15 percent. Lee was highly likely to approve and endorse the bills, as an official at the presidential office said, 'there is very little reason' to veto them, with all three 'receiving People's support,' in a press briefing after the plenary vote. People Power Party, which became the main opposition party on Wednesday, highlighted its party line against the passage of the bills ahead of the plenary vote. The majority of the party lawmakers boycotted all three votes. All three bills passed on Thursday had previous versions that were scrapped by former President Yoon's veto power. The bill mandating a permanent special counsel investigation against Yoon will look into 11 different charges tied to his martial law bid, including insurrection and military mutiny. The previous versions of the bill were vetoed and scrapped twice. The latest version expanded the scope of the charges from six to 11. Special counsel candidates will be nominated by the Democratic Party and the minor liberal Rebuilding Korea Party, from the parliament's side. The bill also eases regulations to access presidential archives. It lowers the threshold from the current approval needed from two-thirds of lawmakers or from a high court chief judge to three-fifths of the Assembly or permission from a district court chief judge. The bill concerning the first lady will look into her alleged role in a stock manipulation scandal as well as the inappropriate acceptance of a luxury bag from a Korean-American pastor and election-related scandals involving political broker Myung Tae-kyun. An amendment passed alongside the bills expands the scope of the number of assistant special prosecutors from four to seven and raises the cap on dispatched prosecutors from 40 to 60.
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Mammoth probes to look into Yoon's alleged treason, insurrection
Special teams size of a district attorney's office to be formed to investigate ex-president Multiple probe teams together comprising some 120 prosecutors are set to look into allegations surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol, including one that he committed treason by trying to impose martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. The Democratic Party of Korea on Thursday passed a series of bills seeking to open three separate special counsel investigations. One will investigate whether Yoon's short-lived martial law declaration would constitute insurrection, for which a criminal trial is already underway, as well as treason. The Democratic Party claims that Yoon plotted to provoke a military action from North Korea to justify declaring martial law with his hawkish policies such as resumption of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts near inter-Korean borders in June 2024. The Democratic Party is also pushing an as-yet unsubstatiated claim that Yoon sent unmanned aerial vehicles into Pyongyang in October 2024. Yoon allegedly attempting to instigate an armed conflict with North Korea in the run-up to his martial law decree was "treason," the Democratic Party claimed, on top of it being a "rebellion against the Constitution, which is to say, insurrection." Another special counsel investigation would revisit the death of a Marine in July 2023. Cpl. Chae Su-geun, 20, died when he was swept away in moving water during a search and rescue operation to locate flood victims in a rain-swollen river in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. The Democratic Party claims that the Yoon presidential office tried to hinder a preliminary investigation into if there had been negligence and other wrongdoing at the top in Chae's death. Yoon's wife Kim Keon Hee is also set to face a special counsel investigation into allegations that she interfered in the People Power Party's nomination of candidates for a National Assembly seat. The Democratic Party voted without the People Power Party to pass the special counsel bills Thursday. The Democratic Party has the majority in the Assembly, holding 167 out of 300 seats.
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Controversy-ridden former presidential worker was Kim Keon Hee's photographer: report
YouTuber who filmed videos from inside the presidential office had taken staged photos for former first lady The woman who posted controversial YouTube videos about her daily life as a worker in the presidential office turned out to be an official who took photos for former first lady Kim Keon Hee, a local media outlet reported. According to the CBS Nocut News, the person was a former Class 9 civil servant surnamed Shin, who had joined ex-President's Yoon Suk Yeol's staff during his presidential campaign in 2022. Shin had purportedly just graduated from college and was entrusted with administrative duties at the presidential office, in particular taking photos of Yoon's wife. It was reported that Shin was responsible for the several staged photos of Kim that were subject of controversy. This included a photo of Yoon's wife holding a sick Cambodian boy in her arms, a photo of her appearing to give instructions to police officials that sparked criticism of her overstepping her role, and photos at the opening of the Suncheonman International Garden Expo 2023 that was focused on Kim and not the event itself. The CBS report said several former officials of the presidential office had made internal complaints over the photos, which were supposedly overruled by Kim. The report also said that Shin had received several warnings for tardiness and had frequently argued with her superiors, but was able to squash out the complaints against herself on the former first lady's authority. The videos recently posted by the former presidential office employee also sparked disputes here, for her filming the outer areas of the secure facility and showing it to the public. During the impeachment trials of now-expelled Yoon, the presidential office in January filed for criminal charges against local broadcasters for filming the official presidential residence from the outside. It claimed that such act was in violation of the Protection of Military Bases and Installations Act, specifically the Article 9 that bans filming in the area designated as a "Protection Zone." The same logic would prevent filming the outside areas of the presidential office. Neither the presidential office or the former employee has issued a comment on the controversy, although she made the disputed videos inaccessible to the public.
