SEOUL - Protests intensified over the weekend as the Constitutional Court is likely to hand down its verdict on suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment this week.
On March 16, members of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea joined people rallying for Mr Yoon’s impeachment to march some 8.7km from the National Assembly in Yeouido of western Seoul to near Gwanghwamun, crossing the Han River via Mapo Bridge.
The march was the fifth consecutive one in five days since March 12, calling on the Constitutional Court to uphold the Parliament’s motion to impeach Mr Yoon.
Representive Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party, urged the Constitutional Court to swiftly hand down its verdict to remove Mr Yoon from office as he led the march on Sunday, saying that the social anxiety and confusion, as well as damage to the economy, are growing the longer the ruling is delayed.
This march followed a mass rally in front of Gwanghwamun, the main and largest gate of Gyeongbokgung, and symbolic site of government since early in the Joseon era (1392-1910). While police estimate some 42,500 protesters gathered in front of the gate calling for Mr Yoon’s removal, the Democratic Party estimated that some one million people rallied there on March 15, after consecutive daily protests the previous week.
In the view of the main opposition, a ruling rejecting the motion to impeach Mr Yoon would signal that martial law can be imposed to silence a president’s critics.
Dismissing the impeachment would be “a shortcut to a backwards dictatorship where terrorism runs rampant, and turning South Korea into a living hell”, Floor Leader Park said on March 15.
The opposition blamed Mr Yoon for the US Department of Energy’s designation of South Korea as a “sensitive” country shortly before former US President Joe Biden left the White House, with Representative Jo Seoung-lae saying on March 16 that it was the result of Mr Yoon “abandoning allies for a coup d’etat”.
Mr Yoon’s swift removal from the presidency is the only way the country will be able to move towards normalisation and restore national security, said Representative Kim Sung-hoi on Saturday.
On the other hand, other protesters demanding the court overturn Mr Yoon’s impeachment rallied on March 16 near the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Organisers registered that 10,000 would rally near Gwanghwamun Square on March 16, at a protest organised by far-right pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon. Other conservative protesters opposing Mr Yoon’s impeachment and calling for South Korea’s nuclear armament were marching from Jonggak Station in central Seoul to the headquarters of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, located a block away from the Constitutional Court, as of 4pm.
The far-right, Christian-based Liberty Unification Party also held a protest near the official presidential residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
Those supportive of Mr Yoon’s botched Dec 3 martial law declaration have branded protests calling for Mr Yoon’s removal as ones instigated by the “anti-state forces”. According to a statement by Mr Yoon’s legal team on March 16, rallies calling for Mr Yoon’s removal have been largely motivated by labour unions which it claims are involved in “anti-state” activities.
On March 15, some 43,000 in Seoul according to an unofficial police estimate were reported to have gathered at Gwanghwamun, Yeouido and near the Constitutional Court combined, although organisers said it was over 3 million.
Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party have participated in the rallies in and out of Seoul. Mr Park Dae-chul took part in a Seoul rally, while some others including representatives Na Kyung-won, Jang Dong-hyeok and Yoon Sang-hyun made appearances in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, which is a conservative’s stronghold.
On March 12, 82 lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party filed a petition demanding the Constitutional Court dismiss the motion to impeach Mr Yoon, in a follow-up of a previous petition on March 1.
In the meantime, the rival parties have been struggling to narrow their differences in terms of policy agenda, amid the ongoing political turmoil and leadership vacuum.
Since February, the rival parties have been at odds over a range of issues such as over semiconductor researchers’ workweek exemption and plans to allocate the proposed extraordinary budget.
There is, however, a sign of bipartisan compromise over one policy matter. On March 15, Mr Jin Sung-joon, policy chief of the Democratic Party, said the party would concede to the ruling party’s proposal to increase the income replacement ratio by 3 percentage points to 43 per cent as part of pension reform.
Lawmakers’ participation in the rallies has triggered criticism from some other lawmakers.
“South Korea has already been suffering from extreme political bipolarisation, even before lawmakers take to the streets to cater to hard-line supporters,” minor conservative New Reform Party’s lawmaker Chun Ha-ram said at a party meeting on March 13. “The National Assembly is where a lawmaker is supposed to be,” according to him. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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