SEOUL: Protesters calling for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment began gathering near the parliament on Saturday (Dec 14), while pro-Yoon right-wing rallies at the centre of Seoul were due to start early in the afternoon.
Some K-pop celebrities have slammed the president and plan to donate food and drinks for those participating in the rally to demand Yoon’s impeachment.
People have been using delivery apps to pre-order food and coffee for protesters.
A defiant Yoon faces a second impeachment vote on Saturday over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, a move that shocked the country, split his party and imperilled his presidency halfway through his term.
His move to impose military rule on Dec 3 was rescinded barely six hours later after parliament defied troops and police to vote against the decree, but it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and triggered widespread calls for him to step down for breaking the law.
Opposition parties plan to hold an impeachment vote at 4pm (3pm Singapore time) on Saturday.
Yoon’s conservative People Power Party boycotted the first impeachment vote a week earlier, preventing a quorum.
Since then, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon has urged party members to vote for impeachment on Saturday, and at least seven PPP members have said they would vote to impeach.
The opposition parties control 192 of the 300 seats in the single-chamber parliament so they need at least eight PPP votes to reach the two-thirds threshold for impeachment.
Ahn Cheol-soo, a PPP lawmaker among those backing Yoon’s impeachment, said in a Facebook post on Saturday that he would vote for impeachment “for the sake of swift stabilisation of people’s livelihood, economy and diplomacy”.
The PPP floor leader said on Friday, however, that the party’s stance is still to oppose impeachment.
PPP lawmakers were due to meet on Saturday morning to decide whether to change that position.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korea-yoon-suk-yeol-second-impeachment-vote-4806586
