Leader of South Korea’s ruling party supports suspending president’s powers
South Korea’s ruling party chief showed support Friday for suspending the constitutional powers of President Yoon Suk Yeol for imposing martial law this week, in a bombshell reversal that makes Yoon’s impeachment more likely.
Opposition parties are pushing for a parliamentary vote on Yoon’s impeachment on Saturday, calling his short-lived martial law declaration an “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.” But they need support from some members of the president’s People Power Party (PPP) to get the two-thirds majority required to pass the impeachment motion.
The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s nighttime martial law decree has frozen South Korean politics and caused worry among neighbours, including fellow democracy Japan, and Seoul’s top ally, the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.
During a party meeting, PPP leader Han Dong-hun stressed the need to suspend Yoon’s presidential duties and power swiftly, saying he poses a “significant risk of extreme actions, like reattempting to impose martial law, which could potentially put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger.”
Han said he had received intelligence that Yoon had ordered the country’s defence counter-intelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities” during the brief period martial law was in force.
“It’s my judgment that an immediate suspension of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official duties is necessary to protect the Republic of Korea and its people,” he said.
Han on Thursday had said he would work to defeat the impeachment motion even though he criticized Yoon’s martial law declaration as “unconstitutional.” He said there was a need to “prevent damage to citizens and supporters caused by unprepared chaos.”
Thousands of protesters have marched in the streets Seoul since Wednesday, calling for Yoon to resign and be investigated. Thousands of autoworkers and other members of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, one of the country’s biggest umbrella labour groups, have started hourly strikes since Thursday to protest Yoon. The union said its members would begin indefinite strikes on Dec. 11 if Yoon was still in office then.
The Defence Ministry said it suspended from duty the defence counter intelligence commander, Yeo In-hyung, who Han alleged had received orders from Yoon to detain the politicians. The ministry also suspended Lee Jin-woo, commander of the capital defence command, and Kwak Jong-geun, commander of the special warfare command, over their involvement in enforcing martial law.
Impeaching Yoon would require support from two-thirds of the National Assembly, or 200 of its 300 members. The opposition parties who jointly brought the impeachment motion have 192 seats. PPP has 108 lawmakers.
Eroded ties between Han, Yoon
Han was previously regarded as a close associate of Yoon as they spent years working together as prosecutors and he served as Yoon’s first justice minister. But after Han entered party politics and became PPP leader, their ties soured as they differed over how to handle scandals involving Yoon and his wife.
Han leads a minority faction within the ruling party, and 18 lawmakers in his faction voted with opposition lawmakers to overturn Yoon’s martial law decree. Martial law ultimately lasted about six hours, after the quick overrule by the National Assembly forced Yoon’s cabinet to lift it before daybreak Wednesday.
Cho Kyoung-tae, a senior ruling party lawmaker who supports Yoon’s impeachment, told reporters that each party lawmaker must now decide “whether they want to take the people’s side or become collaborators of martial law forces.”
If Yoon is impeached, he would be suspended until the Constitutional Court rules on whether to remove him from office or restore his presidential power. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s No. 2 official, would take over presidential responsibilities.
The main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said in a separate televised speech Friday that it was crucial to suspend Yoon as “quickly as possible.”
Lee said Yoon’s martial law enforcement amounted to “rebellion and also a self-coup.” He said Yoon’s move caused serious damage to the country’s image and paralyzed foreign policy, pointing to criticism coming out of the Biden administration and foreign leaders cancelling their visits to South Korea.
Yoon has made no immediate response to Han’s comments. He hasn’t made public appearances since he made a televised announcement that his martial law decree had been lifted. But his office said Thursday that Yoon accepted the resignation offer of Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who opposition parties and Han alleged recommended the martial law imposition to the president.
The prosecution on Thursday placed an overseas travel ban on the former defence minister.
Prosecutor General Shim Woo Jung told reporters Friday that the prosecution plans to investigate rebellion charges against Yoon following complaints filed by the opposition.
While the president mostly enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office, the protection does not extend to allegations of rebellion or treason. It wasn’t immediately clear how the prosecution plans to proceed with an investigation into Yoon.
Democratic Party spokesperson Jo Seoung-lae said Friday the party is considering filing a legal complaint against PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho, whom they accuse of attempting to facilitate Yoon’s martial law enforcement.
Choo, a Yoon loyalist, had asked party lawmakers to convene at the party’s headquarters rather than the National Assembly ahead of a crucial vote on Wednesday, which ultimately passed unanimously with 190 votes in favour of lifting the martial law.
The Biden administration, which has worked closely with Yoon’s government while strengthening trilateral security co-operation with Japan to counter North Korean threats and regional instability, has expressed deep concern about Yoon’s actions.
In a telephone conversation with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken welcomed the lifting of martial law following the parliamentary vote and conveyed his confidence in South Korea’s democratic resilience, the State Department said.
Published at Tue, 03 Dec 2024 17:26:53 +0000
‘Charred body pieces everywhere’ after Israeli strike sets tents ablaze in southern Gaza safe zone
Palestinians were digging through burnt debris searching for bodies Thursday after some 20 people were killed a day earlier in an Israeli strike that set ablaze tents sheltering displaced families in a designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza.
Residents carried a body wrapped in carpets out of the charred wreckage of the makeshift shelters in Al-Mawasi, near the beach west of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sheltered in the crowded tent camp for months.
The tent camp was designated a humanitarian zone by Israeli authorities, who have long told Palestinians to go there for safety.
Mohamed Abu Shahla was sheltering in the tent camp when the strike hit “all of a sudden and without any warning.”
“It didn’t spare any people or anything,” Abu Shahla told CBC News on Thursday.
The strike set several large tents ablaze, and the fire was worsened by the explosion of cooking gas canisters and the burning furniture of the displaced people. On Thursday, the area was strewn with charred clothing, mattresses and other belongings among the twisted frames of scorched shelters.
He said displaced Palestinians were looking for some 15 children missing following the attack.
“You heard the screams of women and children while they burned … there isn’t a single body that’s whole. All of them are in pieces,” he said.
Majority of victims are women, children: Civil defence
Eyewitnesses said the strike on the tent camp caused a fireball to erupt.
“[Al-]Mawasi is not safe … nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe,” Ahmad Al-Siqali said.
Muhammad Abdul Raouf, a night director with the volunteer-run Palestinian Civil Defence group, said the majority of the 20 confirmed killed were women and children.
“The place was scattered with martyrs [when we arrived], charred body pieces everywhere,” he told CBC News Wednesday.
Israel said the strike targeted senior Hamas operatives, whom it did not identify.
“We don’t see anyone from the whole world standing by us or helping us in this situation. Let them stop this crazy war that’s against us. Let them stop the war,” said Abu Kamal Al-Assar, a witness at the site.
At a funeral in Khan Younis, where relatives wept over the white-shrouded bodies of people killed the day before, resident Abu Anas Mustafa called the Amnesty report, which accuses Israel of commiting genocide in Gaza, “a victory for Palestinian diplomacy,” although he said it “came late.”
“It is the 430th day of the war today, and Israel has been carrying out massacres and a genocide from the first 10 days of the war,” he said.
House in Gaza City destroyed in attack
The attack was one of several others across the Gaza Strip that killed a total of 39 Palestinians, according to medics.
In Gaza City, medics said an attack destroyed a house where an extended family had taken shelter and damaged two nearby homes, killing at least three people.
The Israeli army says militants frequently use residential buildings, schools and hospitals for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminate attacks and ignoring the plight of civilians in harm’s way.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians on Thursday, medics said. Three others were killed in a separate airstrike in Shejaia, in eastern Gaza City, they added.
Droves of Palestinians reached central Gaza on Wednesday after being ordered to evacuate the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Palestinians accuse Israel’s army of trying to drive them out of the northern edge of the enclave to create a buffer zone while the Israeli army denies this, saying it has returned to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.
On Thursday, Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of the enclave, said a 16-year-old boy who used a wheelchair was killed, and several people, including medics, were wounded by Israeli drone fire against the medical facility.
There was no Israeli comment on Abu Safiya’s account. The health ministry said the three hospitals that are barely operational on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip have come under repeated attack since Israeli forces sent tanks to Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns and the nearby Jabalia camp in October.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, it has laid much of the Gaza Strip to waste, forcing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes. Authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 44,500 Gazans have been killed, with thousands of others feared dead under the rubble.
Published at Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:01:20 +0000