SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol clung to power on Thursday, with his party announcing they will oppose an impeachment motion after his short-lived imposition of martial law stunned the world.

Yoon suspended civilian rule late Tuesday and deployed troops and helicopters to parliament only for lawmakers to vote down the measure and force him into a U-turn in a night of protests and drama.

Seoul’s allies were alarmed — Washington said it found out via television — and the opposition quickly filed an impeachment motion saying Yoon “gravely violated the constitution and the law”. A vote is set for Saturday at around 7pm.

The opposition holds a large majority in the 300-member legislature and requires only a handful of defections from Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) to secure the two-thirds majority needed for impeachment. But on Thursday, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon said that while he had demanded Yoon leave the party over his “unconstitutional martial law”, he would block the impeachment motion.

“All 108 lawmakers of the People Power Party will stay united to reject the president’s impeachment,” party floor leader Choo Kyung-ho said.

Main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung told Bloomberg that deposing Yoon could still be a challenge.

The situation remains in a “state of flux”, Lee said. According to a poll issued on Thursday by Realmeter, 73.6 per cent of respondents supported the impeachment.

Thousands of protesters continued to rally in central Seoul and near the parliament on Thursday evening demanding the president step down.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2024