South Korean president apologizes, saying he won’t shirk responsibility for attempt at martial law

SEOUL, South Korea (news agencies) — South Korea’s president apologized Saturday for public anxiety caused by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law earlier this week hours ahead of a parliamentary vote on impeaching him.

Yoon said in a brief televised address Saturday morning he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promised not to make another attempt to impose it. He said he would leave it to his conservative political party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.”

South Korean lawmakers are set to vote later Saturday on impeaching President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, as protests grew nationwide calling for his removal.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the motion submitted by opposition lawmakers would get the two-thirds majority required for Yoon to be impeached. But it appeared more likely after the leader of Yoon’s own party on Friday called for suspending his constitutional powers, describing him as unfit to hold the office and capable of taking more extreme action, including renewed attempts to impose martial law.

Impeaching Yoon would require support from 200 of the National Assembly’s 300 members. The opposition parties that jointly brought the impeachment motion have 192 seats combined.

That means they would need at least eight votes from Yoon’s People Power Party. On Wednesday, 18 members of the PPP joined a vote that unanimously canceled martial law 190-0 less than three hours after Yoon declared the measure on television, calling the opposition-controlled parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs. The vote took place as hundreds of heavily-armed troops encircled the National Assembly in an attempt to disrupt the vote and possibly to detain key politicians.

Parliament said Saturday that it would meet at 5 p.m. It will first vote on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate influence peddling allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife, and then on impeaching Yoon.

The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly-thought-out stunt has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners, including neighboring Japan and Seoul’s top ally the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.

Opposition lawmakers claim that Yoon’s martial law declaration amounted to a self-coup and drafted the impeachment motion around rebellion charges.

The PPP decided to oppose impeachment at a lawmakers’ meeting, despite pleas by its leader Han Dong-hun, who isn’t a lawmaker and has no vote.

Following a party meeting on Friday, Han stressed the need to suspend Yoon’s presidential duties and power swiftly, saying he “could potentially put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger.”

Han said he had received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities.”

Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon called after imposing martial law and ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians. The targeted politicians included Han, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.

The Defense Ministry said it had suspended the defense counterintelligence commander, Yeo In-hyung, who Han alleged had received orders from Yoon to detain the politicians. The ministry also suspended Lee Jin-woo, commander of the capital defense command, and Kwak Jong-geun, commander of the special warfare command, over their involvement in enforcing martial law.

Former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who has been accused of recommending Yoon to enforce martial law, has been placed under a travel ban and faces an investigation by prosecutors over rebellion charges.

Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho, who became acting defense minister after Yoon accepted Kim Yong Hyun’s resignation on Thursday, has testified to parliament that it was Kim Yong Hyun who ordered troops to be deployed to the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law.