South Korean President Faces Second Impeachment Vote

The National Assembly of South Korea will hold a second impeachment vote on Saturday against President Yoon Suk Yeol, just one week after a similar attempt to remove him from office failed.

Yoon has been in the eye of the storm since his short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3 plunged the Asian nation into its worst political turmoil in four decades.

Yoon will be suspended from office if 200 members of the National Assembly vote to impeach him, with his fate then left in the hands of the Constitutional Court, which has 180 days to concur with or reject the impeachment vote.

The opposition failed in its first bid to oust the president last Saturday after the ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the impeachment motion.

To succeed on the second attempt, the main opposition Democratic Party must convince eight PPP lawmakers to break ranks and support the impeachment motion.

Leader of the Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, urged the ruling PPP lawmakers to support the impeachment vote, noting that “history will remember” those that fail to do so.

“What the lawmakers must protect is neither Yoon nor the ruling People Power Party but the lives of the people wailing out in the freezing streets.

“Please join in supporting the impeachment vote tomorrow. History will remember and record your choice,” Lee said on Friday.

While two ruling party lawmakers supported the impeachment motion last week, seven have pledged to support it this Saturday.

If the impeachment vote succeeds, Yoon will become only the second president in South Korea’s history to be impeached.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will act as the interim president until the Constitutional Court decides Yoon’s fate.