South Korean president narrowly survives impeachment attempt

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who stunned the world this week by declaring martial law, has narrowly avoided being impeached, as his party's lawmakers boycotted the parliamentary vote on his ouster Saturday.

The motion by opposition lawmakers accused him of insurrection, calling his decree an unconstitutional self-coup.

"The president has betrayed the trust of the people and has lost the right to carry out state affairs," the impeachment motion read.

Thousands of protesters had gathered outside the National Assembly to cheer on his removal. Now protests are expected to build.

"We will not give up. We will prevail," liberal opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said after the motion fell through. "By Christmas, we will bring people the end-of-year gift of restoring the country to normalcy."

The liberal party said it would submit the motion again at the next parliamentary session on Wednesday — and every week after that until it passes. The question is whether enough members of Yoon's conservative ruling party will vote to oust him while he still has two-and-a-half years remaining in his term, potentially ceding the presidency to the liberal opposition.

Impeaching Yoon requires the support of at least two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly — or 200 votes. Because the opposition coalition holds 192 seats, impeachment requires eight or more votes from Yoon's conservative People Power Party.

In the days following the martial law declaration, a handful of ruling party legislators had indicated they would at least consider impeachment. But only three of them showed up for the vote Saturday, with the remaining 105 leaving the plenary hall in protest.

Outside the National Assembly, the crowd gathered to call for Yoon's removal let out a cry of frustration.

Among them were citizens who had traveled from hours away and college students studying for exams in the throng while keeping one eye on the news.

"Arrest Yoon Suk-yeol!" they chanted as they marched down the promenade.

In declaring martial law Tuesday, Yoon railed against the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which he accused of being a "den of criminals" and North Korea-sympathizers.

Gen. Park An-su, whom Yoon designated as his martial law commander, subsequently suspended all political activity and declared the media under the military's control. For many in South Korea, the move chillingly harked to the country's past military dictatorships.

But three hours after Yoon's decree, legislators — many of them scaling the gates of the locked-down National Assembly — unanimously voted to overrule Yoon, requiring him to lift the decree.

On Saturday morning, in a two-minute address to the nation, Yoon apologized for inconveniencing the public and said that he had been motivated by "desperation."

While Yoon reportedly told his officials and party members that his decree was meant to send a message to an adversarial legislature — which has filed numerous impeachments against his appointees and moved to investigate his wife on charges of graft and stock manipulation — many, including his own party members, say they believe he had much more sinister motives.

Han Dong-hun, the leader of the People Power Party, said that there were signs that the special forces soldiers who had stormed the National Assembly were acting on orders to arrest him and other legislators. Opposition leader Lee, whom Yoon narrowly defeated in the presidential election two years ago, has said the same.

"We've confirmed that President Yoon ordered the arrest of major politicians on the grounds that they were anti-state forces," Han said at a party meeting Friday.

"I don't think we can pretend like nothing happened."

While stating that this was based on "credible" sources, Han did not elaborate, offering only that these plans would be made public in due time "through various channels."

In a meeting with Han that same day, Yoon denied giving such an order, Han said.

Hong Jang-won, a senior official at the National Intelligence Service, the country's spy agency, told lawmakers Friday that Yoon called him to order the arrest of several lawmakers, including party leaders Lee and Han. Spy chief Cho Tae-yong has disputed Hong's allegations.

Yet even while condemning the martial law declaration as unconstitutional and acknowledging that Yoon must ultimately be removed from office, Han and most of his party allies balked at impeachment.

For the South Korean conservatives, impeachment is their exposed nerve, and they have reason to tread lightly.

The first and only South Korean president to be successfully impeached was conservative Park Geun-hye, who was later investigated and jailed on corruption charges. Her downfall splintered the conservative camp and opened a path for liberal successor Moon Jae-in, whose term conservatives refer to as "the lost five years."

Crucial to the success of Park's impeachment was a bloc of conservative legislators who joined the opposition to vote in favor.

It is why many party stalwarts are determined to avoid the same fate this time around.

"We cannot have any more traitors surrendering to the enemy, like the time with Park Geun-hye," Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo wrote on social media Wednesday.

Instead, Yoon's party members have floated more moderate solutions that would make way for Yoon's "orderly resignation," such as revising the constitution to shorten Yoon's term, transferring some of his presidential powers to the prime minister or forming a bipartisan Cabinet.

In his recent public address, Yoon said he would leave his fate to the party, hinting that he may relinquish much of his authority to Han, should he avoid impeachment.

The liberal opposition has rejected any alternatives to impeachment, calling Yoon a "ticking time bomb."

"He is in a very troubling mental state right now. We don't have time to discuss something like 'an orderly resignation,' " liberal party spokesperson Yoon Jong-kun told reporters Saturday morning.

"Only Yoon's immediate removal from official duties and impeachment can alleviate the anger of the people and South Korea's plummeting international credit rating."

The liberal party has said that it would propose the motion again Wednesday.

"We are going to propose it repeatedly," Lee Jae-myung said, "until it goes through."