More political turmoil in South Korea as acting president also impeached by lawmakers
South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly voted Friday to impeach acting president Han Duck-soo despite vehement protests by governing party lawmakers, further deepening the country’s political crisis set off by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment.
Han’s impeachment means he will be stripped of the powers and duties of the president until the Constitutional Court decides whether to dismiss or reinstate him.
The court is already reviewing whether to uphold Yoon’s earlier impeachment. The impeachments of the country’s top two officials has worsened its political turmoil, deepened economic uncertainties and hurt its international image.
The single-chamber National Assembly passed Han’s impeachment motion with a 192-0 vote.
Lawmakers with the governing People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote and gathered around the podium where assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik was seated and shouted that the vote was “invalid” and demanded Woo’s resignation.
The PPP lawmakers protested after Woo called for a vote on Han’s impeachment motion after announcing its passage required a simple majority in the 300-member assembly, not a two-thirds majority as claimed by the PPP. Most South Korean officials can be impeached by the National Assembly with a simple majority vote, but a president’s impeachment needs the support of two-thirds. There are no specific laws on the impeachment of an acting president.
In a statement, Han called his impeachment “regrettable” but said he respects the assembly’s decision and will suspend his duties to “not add to additional confusion and uncertainty.” He said he will wait for “a swift, wise decision” by the Constitutional Court.
Han’s powers were officially suspended after copies of his impeachment document were delivered to him and the Constitutional Court. The deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, took over.
Later Friday, Choi’s office said he instructed the military to boost its readiness to help prevent North Korea from miscalculating the situation and launching provocations. He also told the foreign ministry to inform the U.S., Japan and other major partners that South Korea’s foreign policies remain unchanged.
Han, who was appointed prime minister by Yoon, became acting president after Yoon, a conservative, was impeached by the National Assembly about two weeks ago over his short-lived Dec. 3 imposition of martial law.
Han quickly clashed with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party as he pushed back against opposition-led efforts to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court, establish an independent investigation into Yoon’s martial law decree and legislate pro-farmer bills.
At the heart of the fighting is the Democratic Party’s demand that Han approve the assembly’s nominations of three new Constitutional Court justices to restore its full nine-member bench ahead of its ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. That’s a politically sensitive issue because a court decision to dismiss Yoon as president needs support from at least six justices, and adding more justices will likely increase the prospects for Yoon’s ouster.
Yoon’s political allies in the governing People Power Party oppose the appointment of the three justices, saying Han shouldn’t exercise the presidential authority to make the appointments while Yoon has yet to be formally removed from office.
South Korea’s parliament voted Saturday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived martial law decree, a historic rebuke that was cheered by jubilant crowds who described the outcome as another defiant moment in the nation’s resilient democratic journey.
On Thursday, Han said he wouldn’t appoint the justices without bipartisan consent. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the assembly, submitted an impeachment motion against Han and passed bills calling for the appointment of three justices.
South Korean investigative agencies are probing whether Yoon committed rebellion and abuse of power with his marital law decree. Yoon has repeatedly ignored requests by authorities to appear for face-to-face questioning.
His defence minister, police chief and several other senior military commanders have already been arrested over the deployment of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, which prompted a dramatic standoff that ended when lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and voted unanimously to overrule Yoon’s decree.
Published at Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:38:50 +0000
North Korean troops fighting in Russia against Ukraine suffering high casualties, Kyiv says
North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses during fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.
The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units.
It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region.
It marked the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported early on Friday that the country’s spy agency said an injured North Korean soldier had been captured alive.
The agency appeared to confirmed earlier reports that a North Korean soldier dispatched to fight for Russia had been captured by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, dealing a significant blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine, where they were pressing a slow-moving offensive.
The Russian army has been able to reclaim some territory in the Kursk region, but has failed to fully dislodge Ukrainian troops.
Russia steps up attacks in Ukraine
At the same time, Russia has sought to break Ukraine’s resistance with waves of cruise missiles and drone strikes against Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure.
The latest attack on Christmas morning involved 78 missiles and 106 drones striking power facilities, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones and jammed 52 other drones.
On Thursday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 31 exploding drones. Twenty were shot down and another 11 didn’t reach their target due to jamming, the Ukrainian air force said.
Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 70 missiles and 100 attack drones were used to strike Ukraine’s power sources, in a statement on X.
As part of the daily barrage, Russian forces also struck a central market in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, wounding eight people, according to local authorities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Thursday that Russia could again hit Ukraine with the new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile that was first used in a Nov. 21 strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
Speaking to reporters, Putin said Russia has just a few Oreshnik missiles, but added that it wouldn’t hesitate to use them on Ukraine.
“We aren’t in a rush to use them, because those are powerful weapons intended for certain tasks,” he said. “But we wouldn’t exclude their use today or tomorrow if necessary.”
Putin said Russia has launched serial production of the new weapon and reaffirmed a plan to deploy some Oreshnik missiles to Russia’s neighbour and ally Belarus, where authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters Thursday that his country could host 10 or more.
Vladimir Putin says his forces will regain full control of the western Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops launched an offensive last summer. But the Russian president, who held an annual press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, would not provide a specific date.
Ukraine hit back with drone strikes of its own. Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications said the military struck a plant in Kamensk-Shakhtynsky in Russia’s southern Rostov region that produces propellant for ballistic missiles.
“This strike is part of a comprehensive campaign to weaken the capabilities of the Russian armed forces to carry out terrorist attacks against Ukrainian civilians,” it said in a statement.
Published at Fri, 27 Dec 2024 03:49:04 +0000
