Seoul – Ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon said on Friday morning that President Yoon Seok-yeol should no longer be allowed to exercise his presidential powers.
South Korea convened an emergency meeting of the leadership of the People's Power Party that day and said he had conclusive evidence that Yoon mobilized the army to arrest politicians while martial law was still in effect.
“I learned last night that the president ordered the defense counterintelligence commander (Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung) to arrest key political leaders and label them as anti-national forces, mobilizing intelligence agencies in the process,” the ruling party leader said. .
Han added that he had “credible evidence” that this was the president's plan on the night of martial law.
Han said he believed troops led by Yang planned to detain politicians at a government building in Gwacheon, near Seoul.
“I said that in order to prevent this country from falling into further chaos, I would do my best to prevent the passage of this impeachment bill. But based on the circumstances that have been disclosed, and in order to protect South Korea and our people, I believe it is necessary to immediately prevent President Yoon from exercising his power.” Presidential power,” he said.
A vote to impeach Yoon proposed by the opposition party is scheduled for a vote on Saturday around 7 p.m. Following Han Kuo-yu's about-face, the bill now has support from both the ruling and opposition parties.
When Mr Yin declared martial law at around 10:20pm on Tuesday, Han immediately protested Mr Yin's move. The president's decision was overturned in a bipartisan vote in the National Assembly about three hours later.
While Han acknowledged that the imposition of martial law was unconstitutional, he said that before today, he was “cautious” about joining opposition calls to impeach Yoon.
