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Fire authorities search for the missing and recover the deceased at the site of an accident near Muan International Airport in Jeollanam-do, South Korea, on Dec. 29, 2024.
South Korea devastated by deadly crash
South Korea is in mourning after the crash of Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 during an emergency landing attempt at Muan International Airport on Sunday. The Boeing 737-800 was en route from Bangkok to Muan when it suffered a suspected landing gear failure, possibly caused by a bird strike. The aircraft skidded off the runway, collided with a concrete barrier, and burst into flames, killing 179 people aboard. Only two flight attendants survived.
The tragedy is South Korea’s deadliest aviation disaster since 1997. It comes at a politically volatile time, two days afterChoi Sang-mok became acting president, replacing Han Duck-soo, who was on the job for just two weeks. Han had replaced President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached on Dec. 14 for attempting to impose martial law on the country on Dec. 3. But Han was shown the door for failing to appoint three new Constitutional Court justice nominees to review Yoon’s impeachment. Choi now faces calls for accountability over airport safety regulations and infrastructure maintenance and has pledged a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash. He has demanded that the country's airlines undergo an emergency safety inspection and declared a weeklong period of national mourning.
The Jeju Air disaster came on the heels of another deadly crash – that of an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer E190, which went down in western Kazakhstan, killing 38 of 67 people aboard last Wednesday. Experts believe a Russian air-defense missile downed the plane. While Vladimir Putin apologized for the incident, he did so without taking responsibility. On Sunday, Azerbaijan demanded that Russia admit responsibility and compensate the government and affected families.
The incident brings the number of deaths due to missile strikes to over 500 in the past decade, making missiles the number one cause of deadly plane crashes, according to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network. Other examples include a second case attributable to Russia, the midair destruction in 2014 of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 flying over Ukraine, which killed all 298 aboard, and the 2020 shooting by Iranian forces of a Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 departing Tehran, which killed all 176 people onboard.
Han Duck-soo, now the acting South Korean prime minister, gives a speech during the opening ceremony of the AI Global Forum in Seoul, South Korea, on May 22, 2024.
South Korea: Guy who replaced the impeached guy gets impeached
This story gets wilder by the day. On Friday, less than two weeks after President Yoon Suk Yeol was stripped of his duties for attempting to impose martial law, the opposition impeached his successor, Yoon’s fellow People Party member Han Duck-soo.
Why? Yoon’s impeachment becomes official only when confirmed by the Constitutional Court. But at the moment three of the court’s nine seats are vacant, meaning a single dissenting vote would overturn Yoon’s removal.
The opposition Democratic party wanted acting president Han to appoint new justices, but he refused to do so unless it was part of a broader agreement between his party and the opposition. The opposition said this showed he was incapable of “upholding the constitution” and filed papers to impeach him.
Increasing tensions, National Assembly speaker Woo Won-shik announced that only 151 votes were needed to pass the impeachment vote — not 200 like they needed to impeach Yoon.
The measure passed with 192 votes on Friday, but it has prompted protests from ruling party lawmakers who say the impeachment vote was an “abuse of power” — and they, in turn, want the speaker to resign.
Once Han is officially notified by parliament of the impeachment, he will be suspended, and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is set to replace him.
So South Korea’s most bizarre and explosive political crisis in decades just got even weirder.