Members of South Korea’s National Assembly have voted to impeach the national police chief and the justice minister over their enforcement of martial law last week.
The opposition-controlled assembly plans to submit a second impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol later in the day after the first motion last Saturday failed under a governing party boycott.
National police chief Cho Ji Ho was detained earlier this week for investigation. The vote on Thursday suspends Cho and Justice Minister Park Sung Jae from their duties.
In a televised statement, Mr Yoon defended his martial law decree as an act of governance and denied rebellion charges.
He suggested he has no intention of resigning and rejected the impeachment attempts and investigations into last week’s move.
A TV screen shows South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s televised briefing at a bus terminal in Seoul (Ahn Young-joon/AP)
“I will fight to the end, to prevent the forces and criminal groups that have been responsible for paralysing the country’s government and disrupting the nation’s constitutional order from threatening the future of the Republic of Korea,” he said.
Mr Yoon said his martial law introduction was meant to defend the county’s liberal democracy and constitutional order in the face of the liberal opposition party, which he says threatens the constitution.
He said the deployment of less than 300 soldiers to the National Assembly was designed to maintain order.
Mr Yoon called the Democratic Party “a monster” and “anti-state forces,” which he said repeatedly tried to use its legislative muscle to impeach top officials, undermine government budget bills and sympathise with North Korea.
“The opposition is now doing a knife dance of chaos, claiming that the declaration of martial law constitutes to an act of rebellion. But was it really?” he said.
On Wednesday, Mr Yoon’s office resisted a police attempt to search the compound.
Earlier on Thursday, the leader of his own conservative party Han Dong-hun, said Mr Yoon was making it clear he had no willingness to step down voluntarily and called for party members to vote in favour of his impeachment at the upcoming National Assembly vote.
The opposition party plans to put the new impeachment motion in a floor vote on Saturday.
Its earlier attempt to impeach Mr Yoon fell through last Saturday with ruling party lawmakers boycotting a vote at the National Assembly.
A rally demanding South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, outside the National Assembly in Seoul (Ahnn Young-joon/AP)
Mr Yoon’s December 3 martial law decree has generated political chaos and protests calling for his removal.
Kim Yong Hyun, one of Mr Yoon’s close associates, has been accused of recommending martial law to Mr Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting on it.
Enough lawmakers eventually managed to enter a parliament chamber and they unanimously rejected Mr Yoon’s decree, forcing the Cabinet to lift it before daybreak on December 4.
Officials said Mr Kim attempted to kill himself at a detention centre in Seoul after his arrest and was in a stable condition after centre officials stepped in to stop him.