The ouster of South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, on Friday has plunged the country into further political turmoil, less than two weeks after lawmakers impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The successive impeachments that suspended the country’s two top officials are unprecedented, and Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is now South Korea’s new interim leader. Upon assuming power, Choi quickly ordered the military to increase its preparedness to thwart possible North Korean aggression and asked diplomats to reassure key partners such as the United States and Japan.
“(Han’s) impeachment now creates an opportunity for external threats and at the same time causes Korea’s foreign partners to alienate it from the global community,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
A look at the latest developments in South Korea’s political tumult, which began with Yoon’s short-lived martial law on December 3.
Why was the acting leader removed?
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, South Korea’s No. 2 official, became interim leader after the assembly impeached Yoon on Dec. 14 over his martial law decree that brought hundreds of troops to the streets of Seoul. and dates back to the days of military warfare. govern in the years 1960-70.
Han, a career bureaucrat, tried to reassure key diplomatic partners and stabilize markets. But he became embroiled in a political conflict with the main liberal opposition party, the Democratic Party, which has a majority in the assembly. A major trigger for Han’s impeachment was his refusal to accept a demand from the DP that he immediately appoint three vacant magistrate positions on the Constitutional Court to improve fairness and public confidence in his ruling on Yoon’s impeachment.
Restoring the court’s full nine-member panel is crucial because a court ruling to remove Yoon from office needs the support of at least six judges, and a full court will likely increase Yoon’s prospects for removal. Han said he would not appoint judges without bipartisan consent, but critics suspect he was siding with Yoon loyalists in the ruling People Power Party, or PPP, who want Yoon to regain power.
Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Presidential Leadership Institute, said Han lacked legitimate reasons to oppose the appointment of the court’s judges. But he noted that DP should not have carried out Han’s impeachment so hastily.
What diplomatic consequences are expected?
Han’s impeachment came as South Korea has been telling the world that things are back to normal after the marriage law incident, which caused concerns among neighbors, halted high-level diplomacy and rattled markets. financial.
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Yoon’s martial law stunt baffled policymakers in the United States, Japan and Europe, as he has been their key diplomatic partner against shared challenges, including China’s assertiveness, North Korea’s nuclear threats and vulnerabilities in global supply chains.
“South Korea now finds itself in a much more serious leadership and governance crisis. The DP’s political tactics are actually putting the country’s economy and national security at serious risk,” Duyeon Kim said. “Han had the experience and credentials to deal with financial and security crises if they arise during South Korea’s political uncertainty.”
Choi Jin doubted that acting leader Choi would smoothly engage in diplomacy with world leaders. “We will suffer international disgrace and our international credibility will collapse,” he said. “The negative effects on the economy, culture and all other sectors will likely occur quietly and widely.”
The ruling party argued that Han’s impeachment was “invalid” because it was approved with a simple majority in the 300-member assembly, not a two-thirds majority as the PPP claims.
There are no specific laws regarding the impeachment of a sitting president, and the PPP filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to review the vote.
It is unclear when the court will rule on that request. The Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to confirm the dismissal of Yoon and Han, although its decisions are expected to come sooner.
Han called his impeachment “regrettable” but said he respects the assembly’s decision.
The court held its first pretrial in Yoon’s case on Friday. If Yoon is removed from office, national elections must be held to find his successor within 60 days. Yoon and others face separate investigations by investigative agencies into allegations that they committed rebellion, abuse of power and other crimes in connection with the martial law decree.
According to polls, Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is a clear favorite to win a possible presidential by-election should Yoon be ousted. But Lee has legal problems of his own and could possibly be barred from running for president if the Supreme and Appeal Courts uphold his conviction in a lower court for violating election law in November.
If he becomes president, his trials would stop because South Korean law grants the sitting president immunity from most criminal prosecutions.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
