South Korea’s Parliament Approves Impeachment of Han Duck-soo
The prime minister is serving as interim president after Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law and then lifted it hours later
South Korea’s political crisis continues as Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is found guilty of actively participating in an “attempted rebellion,” that is, Yoon Suk-yeol’s attempt to impose martial law.
Han Duck-soo became interim president after Yoon’s impeachment. On December 26, the main opposition party also proposed that Han be impeached because he did not want to fill three vacant positions on the Constitutional Court, which will have to rule on charges against Yoon Suk-yeol over the next six months.
Approved by an overwhelming majority, this is the first impeachment of an interim president since the impeachment of the titular president, and the role of interim head of state now goes to Choi Sang-mok, the finance minister.
Yoon imposed martial law on December 3, but it was in effect for only six hours. On December 14, Seoul’s National Assembly voted to remove the conservative president.
Now it was Han’s turn, who, according to the parliament-approved text, “deliberately obstructed a special investigation aimed at questioning people involved in the mutiny and made clear his intention to reject the appointments of three Constitutional Court judges,” actions that “violate the duty of every public official to respect the law.”
