South Korean President to Face Death Penalty for Alleged Insurrection
- Im Hun-jung/Yonhap via AP
Seoul, VIVA – South Korean police have opened an investigation against Yoon Suk Yeol, the country’s president, for allegedly committing treason after he declared martial law on Tuesday.
The investigation comes after the opposition Rebuilding Korea party and 59 activists filed two complaints against Yoon and other cabinet members involved in Tuesday night’s chaotic events.
Insurrection is a crime that goes beyond presidential immunity and the defendant could face life imprisonment or the death penalty if found guilty.
A survey released on Thursday shows that seven out of 10 South Koreans support the impeachment of Yoon over the short-lived martial law declaration, and 70 per cent of respondents agreed that Yoon’s actions constitute treason.
In addition to Yoon, South Korea’s former defence minister Kim Yong-Hyun, Army chief of staff Gen Park An-su and interior minister Lee Sang-min are all being investigated by police for allegedly committing treason because of their involvement in the martial law declaration.
Presiden Korea Selatan Yoon Suk Yeol memberikan pernyataan terkait Itaewon
- Sun Myung-geon/Yonhap via AP
Kim apologised and offered to resign on Thursday morning. Yoon accepted his resignation and replaced Kim with Choi Byung Hyuk, South Korea’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
The Seoul central district prosecutors office has imposed a travel ban on Kim.
During a parliamentary session on Thursday, Kim Seon-ho, South Korea’s vice defence minister, told lawmakers that it was Kim Yong-Hyun who proposed the idea of declaring martial law to president Yoon, ordered the troops to infiltrate the National Assembly and block lawmakers from entering the compound.
The development comes less than 48 hours after Yoon’s sudden declaration of martial law shocked the world and threw South Korea into turmoil.
He withdrew the declaration just hours later after 190 South Korean lawmakers passed a motion to end it.
The opposition parties, led by the Democratic Party, are scheduled to vote on his impeachment at 7pm on Saturday.
While the opposition parties hold a majority of 192 seats in the National Assembly, they need at least eight lawmakers from the ruling party, which has 108 seats, to successfully impeach Yoon.
On Thursday, Han Dong-hoon, leader of the ruling People Power Party, said he will unite members of his party to block the opposition-proposed motion to impeach Yoon.
But he emphasised that the decision was not to “defend” Yoon’s “unconstitutional martial law” and he is still calling on the president to leave the ruling party.
“Those responsible for unsettling the public and causing harm through unconstitutional martial law, including the president, must be held strictly accountable,” he said.
With the ruling party planning to boycott the motion to impeach Yoon, analysts say it’s uncertain whether the opposition parties could pass the motion on Saturday.
If the National Assembly fails to pass the motion, they expect protesters to turn out in huge numbers over the weekend to demand Yoon’s resignation, as quoted from Telegraph site.
