South Korea’s impeachment feud pauses in wake of deadly Jeju Air plane crash

SEOUL – Political parties hit pause on partisan wrangling and came together on Dec 29 as South Korea grieves for victims of a plane crash that is presumed to have killed most on board, according to the latest announcement by fire authorities.

A Jeju Air plane carrying 181 passengers and crew members

crashed on landing at an airport in Muan early on Dec 29,

leading both major parties – the People Power Party and the Democratic Party of Korea – to cancel previous plans and convene emergency meetings.

“Now is the time to focus on a unified response to the tragedy,” Mr Kweon Seong-dong, the People Power Party floor leader and acting chairman, told reporters.

Mr Kweon said the ruling party would be launching a task force to investigate the crash and support the families of the victims and survivors.

Democratic Party chairman Lee Jae-myung said in a statement that his party would “do everything possible in response to the tragedy”.

About half an hour after the crash, Lee uploaded a Facebook post accusing President Yoon Suk Yeol and Mr Han Dong-hoon, the former People Power Party chairman who

resigned following Mr Yoon’s impeachment motion passed,

of “pointing guns at the people”. The post has since been deleted.

Lee said he would head to Muan in the afternoon on Dec 29, and Mr Kweon on the morning of Dec 30.

For the last couple of days, the Democratic Party, which controls the National Assembly’s majority, has threatened yet another impeachment over the appointment of Constitutional Court justices.

Three out of nine seats on the Constitutional Court, which must decide whether to uphold

the assembly’s impeachment of Mr Yoon

or keep him in power, have remained unfilled after the previous justices’ terms ended in October.

But before the martial law debacle, the Democratic Party was not keen on filling the Constitutional Court vacancies.

Despite laws that require appointing new justices within 30 days of seats on the Constitutional Court being vacated, the party dragged the process out in a bid to push its favoured candidates.

It was not until after the motion to impeach Mr Yoon passed in the assembly that the Democratic Party reversed its approach and began demanding that the People Power Party get on board with appointment of three Constitutional Court justices.

Under the Constitution, three of the Constitutional Court justices are picked by the assembly and confirmed by the president – which Mr Han Duck-soo, who was then the prime minister and acting president, refused to follow through with.

Mr Han became the first acting president in the country’s history

to be impeached on Dec 27,

just about two weeks after Mr Yoon was impeached and suspended from his duties as president.

Top Democratic Party lawmakers said the party would not be against impeaching Mr Choi Sang-mok, the second acting president and acting prime minister, if he does not accept the Constitutional Court justice candidates selected by the Assembly.

Representative Kim Yun-duck, the Democratic Party secretary-general, told a press conference on Dec 29 that Mr Choi “must end the chaos the country is in by appointing the three justices of the Constitutional Court without delay”.

Four-time representative Park Beom-kye, who was justice minister under former Democratic Party president Moon Jae-in, said in a radio interview on Dec 27 that the party “won’t have any choice” but to impeach Mr Choi as well if he maintains the position taken by Mr Han.

The People Power Party has protested the serial impeachments by the Democratic Party as a “majority dictatorship.”

After the Yoon administration

took office in May 2022,

the Democratic Party introduced a total of 29 impeachment motions against Cabinet members and other senior government officials. THE KOREA HERALD/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK