Yoon Suk Yeol can’t take “yes” for an answer

A 24-hour Yonhapnews TV broadcast at Yongsan Railway Station shows South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering a speech at the Presidential Office in Seoul. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, defended his botched martial law declaration, as an act of governance and denied insurrection charges facing him, while vowing to fight until the last moment against whether it is impeachment or a martial law probe.
A 24-hour Yonhapnews TV broadcast at Yongsan Railway Station shows South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivering a speech at the Presidential Office in Seoul. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, defended his botched martial law declaration, as an act of governance and denied insurrection charges facing him, while vowing to fight until the last moment against whether it is impeachment or a martial law probe.
Kim Jae-Hwan / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol looks highly likely to be impeached on Saturday after the leader of his own party on Thursday told members to vote according to their “conviction and conscience.” Yoon cooked his own goose earlier in the day by delivering a fiery speech defending his decision to briefly impose martial law on Dec. 3 — and crashing behind-the-scenes efforts to allow him to resign on his own terms in the process.

“We tried to find a better way than impeachment, but that other way is invalid,” said Yoon’s party leader, Han Dong-hoon. “Suspending the president from his duties through impeachment is the only way for now, to defend democracy and the republic.”

If at least eight members from his own party vote with the opposition majority — and six have already pledged to do so — Yoon will be immediately suspended from office, with the prime minister assuming presidential responsibilities. His official removal will have to wait for the Constitutional Court to confirm the impeachment as legal, which could take weeks or months as three of the bench’s nine seats are vacant.

Eurasia Group’s Jeremy Chan says Yoon will keep fighting all the way.

“Yoon will likely contest the impeachment charges in a way that we have never seen before, arguing that declaring martial law was within his presidential powers and a legitimate action to defend against the fierce opposition to his governing that the opposition-led National Assembly presented,” says Chan. “This will be a losing argument but one that I expect Yoon to make forcefully and personally before both the Constitutional Court and his likely criminal investigation.”

We’re watching how quickly the opposition chooses to roll the process along, as the timing of the by-election to replace Yoon depends on when the court rules.

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