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
Azerbaijan Airlines pauses flights to more Russian cities after crash that killed 38
Russia’s aviation chief said Friday that a Ukrainian drone attack was under way in the region of Chechnya at the time an Azerbaijani airliner attempted to land before diverting to Kazakhstan and crashing there earlier this week.
Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, didn’t comment on statements by an Azerbaijani lawmaker and many aviation experts who blamed Wednesday’s crash on Russian air defence fire.
Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190 was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons still unclear and crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau, Kazakhstan, after flying east across the Caspian Sea. The crash killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured.
Azerbaijan Airlines said in a statement that it would pause flights to more Russian cities “following the preliminary results of the investigation into the crash of the Embraer 190 aircraft operating flight J2-8243 from Baku to Grozny, caused by physical and technical interference, and considering potential risks to flight safety.”
The airline did not specify what it meant by “physical and technical interference.”
As Azerbaijan mourns 38 people killed aboard a flight that crashed in Kazakhstan, experts are pointing to signs they say suggest a missile, potentially one from Russia, was responsible.
Authorities in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia were tight-lipped about a possible cause of the crash pending an official probe, but a lawmaker in Azerbaijan blamed Moscow. Rasim Musabekov told the Azerbaijani news agency Turan on Thursday that the plane was fired on while in the skies over Grozny, and urged Russia to offer an official apology.
Asked about Musabekov’s statement, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying that it will be up to investigators to determine the cause of the crash.
“The air incident is being investigated and we don’t believe we have the right to make any assessments until the conclusions are made as a result of the investigation,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
Yadrov, the Russian aviation chief, said that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting Grozny, prompting authorities to close the area for air traffic.
Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land in Grozny, he was offered other airports as an alternative but decided to fly to Aktau across the Caspian Sea.
“The situation in the area of Grozny airport was quite difficult,” he said in a statement. “There are many circumstances that it’s necessary to investigate jointly.”
Investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny as part of the crash probe, Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.
Experts say plane likely hit by Russian defence system
As the official crash probe started, some aviation experts pointed out that holes seen in the plane’s tail section suggested that it could have come under fire from Russian air defence systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the country’s North Caucasus. An official in Chechnya said another drone attack on the region was fended off on Wednesday, although federal authorities didn’t report it.
FlightRadar24 said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” that interfered with flight tracking data. Russia has extensively used sophisticated jamming equipment to fend off drone attacks.
Airline pauses flights to more Russian cities
Following Wednesday’s suspension of flights from Baku to Grozy and Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines on Friday also halted service to Mineralnye Vody, Sochi, Volgograd, Ufa and Samara.
The company will continue to operate flights to six other Russian cities including Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan. Those cities also have been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes in the past.
Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air also announced Friday that it was suspending flights from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.
The day before, Israeli El Al suspended flights from Tel Aviv to Moscow citing “developments in Russia’s airspace.” The airline said it would reassess the situation next week to decide whether to resume the flights.
Published at Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:59:23 +0000