SEOUL - South Korea appears to be on edge with politicians urged to respect the upcoming ruling on suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment from the Constitutional Court amid intensifying protests over the weekend.
The court is likely to hand down its verdict this week.
The ruling People Power Party floor leader Kweon Seong-dong on March 16 said that the party would accept the Constitutional Court’s final verdict to determine the fate of Mr Yoon, regardless of whether the outcome is favourable to the ruling party or not.
“Our party’s official stance is that it will respect the Constitutional Court’s final verdict, in line with the President’s intention to do so as exhibited during his final remarks at the impeachment trial,” Mr Kweon told a press conference Sunday at the National Assembly, when answering a reporter’s question.
The remarks came amid speculations that some ruling party lawmakers have “individually” ramped up pressure on the Constitutional Court, urging pro-Yoon protesters to sabotage the court should it uphold the impeachment motion.
When asked what he thought of ruling party lawmakers’ participation in pro-Yoon rallies and their controversial remarks denoting a refusal to respect the court’s decision, Mr Kweon said he does not think it is “desirable to control each individual lawmaker over their remarks”.
Former liberal lawmaker Kim Doo-kwan on his social media on March 16 proposed a joint press conference of the leaders after the impeachment ruling in a show of bipartisanship.
Representative Ahn Cheol-soo of the ruling party called on rival parties to jointly express their bid to respect the ruling before the impeachment verdict, saying that failure to do so could trigger violence among the public.
Protesters demanding that the court overturn Mr Yoon’s impeachment rallied on March 16 near the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Some 6,000 were estimated to have rallied near Gwanghwamun Square on the same day, at a protest organised by far-right pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, according to the police.
Other groups of conservative protesters opposing Mr Yoon’s impeachment and calling for South Korea’s nuclear armament marched from Jonggak Station in central Seoul to a location a block away from the Constitutional Court.
The far-right, Christian-based Liberty Unification Party, also held a protest near the official presidential residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.
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 three million.
Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party, such as Representatives Park Dae-chul, Na Kyung-won, Jang Dong-hyeok and Yoon Sang-hyun, participated in rallies held in and outside of Seoul over the weekend.
On March 12, 82 People Power Party lawmakers filed a petition demanding that the Constitutional Court dismiss the motion to impeach Mr Yoon, in a follow-up of a previous petition on March 1.
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 “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 that it claims are involved in “anti-state” activities.
On the other hand, members of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea joined people rallying for Mr Yoon’s impeachment by marching some 8.7km from the National Assembly in Yeouido, 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.
Representative Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the Democratic Party, urged the Constitutional Court to swiftly hand down its verdict to remove Yoon from office as he led the march on March 16, saying that social anxiety and confusion, as well as the 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.
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 “turn 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.
Representative Jo Seoung-lae of the Democratic Party said on March 16 that it was the result of Mr Yoon “abandoning allies for a coup d’etat”.
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 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 16, Representative 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 took to the streets to cater to hard-line supporters,” minor conservative New Reform Party’s lawmaker Representative Chun Ha-ram said in a party meeting on March 13.
According to him, “the National Assembly is where a lawmaker is supposed to be.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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