South Korea’s President Yoon vows to ‘fight to the end’, defying impeachment threat

SEOUL - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would “fight to the end” on Dec 12 as his own political party shifted closer to voting with the opposition to impeach him over his

short-lived martial law order

that threw the country into turmoil.

In a lengthy televised address, he alleged that North Korea had hacked into the South’s election commission, casting doubt on his party’s landslide election defeat in April.

Mr Yoon, whose country is Asia’s fourth-largest economy, hopes his political allies will rally to support him, but it appeared even less likely after his address.

The leader of his ruling People Power Party (PPP) said the time had come for Mr Yoon to resign or be impeached by Parliament.

Later on Dec 12, six opposition parties led by the Democratic Party submitted a Bill for Mr Yoon’s impeachment to Parliament. A vote is expected on Dec 14, nearly two weeks after the first one failed because most of the PPP members boycotted it.

At least seven members of the party are expected to support a new impeachment motion. At least eight PPP votes are needed for the two-thirds majority required to impeach Mr Yoon.

Mr Yoon said the opposition was “dancing the sword dance of madness” by trying to drag a democratically elected president from power, nine days after his aborted attempt to grant sweeping powers to the military. “I will fight to the end,” he said. “Whether they impeach me or investigate me, I will face it all squarely.”

His remarks were his first

since he apologised on Dec 7

and said he would leave his fate in the hands of his party.

His defiant comments raise the possibility that Mr Yoon, a career prosecutor and a legal expert, may have decided to take his chances in court, hoping to make a comeback.

“It appears that he just doesn’t want to step down and is trying to hang in there as he still thinks he did the right thing,” said Myongji University political science professor Shin Yul.

A vote to impeach Mr Yoon would send the case to the Constitutional Court, which has up to six months to decide whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.

In the latest sign that Mr Yoon was losing his grip on power, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon told a meeting of party members on Dec 12 that they should join the opposition to impeach the President.

The party remains divided and Mr Yoon still has the backing of some PPP lawmakers who oppose impeachment.

Mr Yoon is separately

under criminal investigation for alleged insurrection

over the Dec 3 martial law declaration, which he rescinded hours later, causing South Korea’s biggest political crisis in decades and setting off economic and diplomatic shock waves.

On Dec 12, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said on X that Commander Paul LaCamera had spoken to South Korea’s acting defence minister to reassure Seoul about USFK’s readiness to respond to external threats while respecting South Korea’s sovereignty.

About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea.

Mr Yoon said “criminal groups” had paralysed state affairs, disrupted the rule of law and must be stopped at all costs from taking over government.

He was referring to the opposition Democratic Party, which had blocked some of his proposals and demanded his wife be investigated over alleged wrongdoing. He gave no evidence of criminal activity.

Mr Kim Min-seok, a senior Democratic Party member, said Mr Yoon’s address was a “display of extreme delusion” and urged members of the President’s party to join the impeachment vote.

North Korean hack

Mr Yoon alleged communist-ruled North Korea had hacked into the National Election Commission (NEC) in 2023, but again cited no evidence.

He said the attack was detected by intelligence agents but the commission, an independent agency, refused to cooperate fully in an investigation and inspection of its system. The hack cast doubt on the integrity of the April 2024 election – which his party lost by a landslide – and led him to declare martial law, he added.

The commission said that by raising suspicion about election irregularities, Mr Yoon was committing a “self-defeating act against an election oversight system that elected himself as president”.

The NEC said it had consulted the National Intelligence Service in 2023 to address “security vulnerabilities” but there were no signs that a hack by North Korea compromised the election system.

Mr Yoon won the presidency in March 2022 by the narrowest margin in South Korea’s democratic history.

Troops entered the election commission’s computer server room after Mr Yoon’s martial law declaration, officials said, and which CCTV footage also showed, but it was not clear if they removed any equipment.

Mr Yoon said his martial law declaration was a symbolic move to expose an opposition plot to destroy the country.

He denied ordering the blockade of Parliament or trying to stop it from conducting business, contradicting testimony from a military officer who said Mr Yoon gave the order to enter Parliament and remove lawmakers gathering to vote to reverse the martial law declaration.

Mr Yoon said only experienced soldiers and not enlistees were deployed on Dec 3 to maintain order and protect civilians. REUTERS, AFP