South Korea opposition leader urges president's party to support impeachment over martial law

By Jack Kim

South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said on Friday the best way to restore order in the country is to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, a day ahead of a planned parliamentary vote over Yoon's short-lived imposition of martial law.

Yoon's move to impose military rule on Dec. 3 was rescinded barely six hours later but it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and widespread calls for him to step down for breaking the law.

The beleaguered president survived an initial impeachment attempt a week earlier when his People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote, preventing a quorum.

At least seven members of the PPP have since declared their intention to support impeachment on Saturday, nearing the eight PPP votes needed to reach the 200 vote threshold alongside the 192 opposition party lawmakers.

Yoon on Thursday vowed to "fight to the end," blaming the opposition party for paralysing the government and claiming a North Korean hack into the election commission made his party's crushing defeat in an April parliamentary election questionable.

Democratic Party leader Lee called Yoon's remarks "a declaration of war" against the people. "It proved that impeachment is the fastest and the most effect way to end the confusion," he said.

Yoon survived the first attempt to impeach him last Saturday when most of his ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote. Since then at least seven PPP members have publicly supported a vote to impeach him.

Opposition parties have introduced another impeachment bill and plan to hold a vote at 4 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday.

Lee called on PPP members to "join and vote yes for impeachment," saying "history will remember and record your decision." A vote to impeach Yoon would send the case to the Constitutional Court, which has up to six months to decide whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.

There was more criticism of Yoon's defiant address on Thursday, including his claim that a hack by North Korea last year may have compromised the computer system of the National Election Commission, without citing evidence.

Yoon cited as one reason for declaring martial law a refusal by the commission to cooperate fully in a systems inspection which meant the integrity of the parliamentary election held in April could not be assured.

On Friday, the Secretary General of the commission, Kim Yong-bin, denied the possibility of election fraud, saying voting is entirely done by paper ballots and the courts have dismissed all 216 claims of irregularities raised as groundless.

Yoon is separately under criminal investigation for alleged insurrection over the martial law declaration.

DIPLOMATIC, ECONOMIC FALLOUT

South Korean shares rose for a fourth straight session on Friday on hopes that the political uncertainty would ease after a parliamentary vote this weekend to impeach the president.

The finance ministry said authorities will deploy more measures to stabilise markets if volatility heightens excessively after the voting result on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul told parliament that there had been "serious damage" to South Korea's diplomatic position because of the martial law decree.

Cho said he told Yoon in a brief cabinet meeting before the declaration that the move would have diplomatic repercussions and potentially undo many achievements in the decades since South Korea's founding.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said last week that Yoon's decree had been seen as "deeply problematic" and "illegitimate".

But the U.S. and other Western partners, many of whom had previously lauded Yoon as a champion of democracy in Asia, have been largely muted, beyond expressing general concerns for stability and praising Yoon's decision to revoke his order.

One Western diplomat in Seoul told Reuters that working-level meetings with South Korean counterparts had largely continued unaffected by the political crisis, but that the diplomatic community was watching closely to see if the situation deteriorated.

Yoon's potential ouster comes as South Korea is faced with navigating the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has clashed with the previous South Korean president over trade and paying for U.S. troops based in the country.