SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's parliament formally introduced a motion on Thursday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over a botched attempt to impose martial law, but his party vowed to oppose the move, throwing the process into doubt.
Lawmakers could vote for the bill as early as Friday. Yoon's ruling People Power Party said it would oppose it but the party has been divided over the crisis. The opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, needs at least eight ruling party lawmakers to back the bill in order for it to pass.
"The Yoon Suk Yeol regime's declaration of emergency martial law caused great confusion and fear among our people," Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won told a session of South Korea's National Assembly held in the early hours of Thursday.
None of the 108 ruling party lawmakers were present for the introduction of the motion, which followed an attempt by armed troops to force their way into the National Assembly building in Seoul, only to stand back when parliamentary aides sprayed them with fire extinguishers.
"The people and the aides who protected parliament protected us with their bodies. The people won, and it's now time for us to protect the people," said Kim.
"We need to immediately suspend the authority of President Yoon. He has committed an indelible, historic, crime against the people, whose anxiety needs to be soothed so that they can return to their daily lives".
If the impeachment motion is passed and upheld by the constitutional court, Yoon would be the second South Korean president to have been impeached since massive candlelit protests against an influence-peddling scandal led to the removal of former president Park Geun-hye in 2017.
Yoon's declaration of martial law late on Tuesday attempted to ban political activity and censor the media in South Korea, which has Asia's fourth largest economy and is a key U.S. ally. The shock move divided Yoon's ministers and unleashed six hours of political chaos.
Demonstrators held candlelit vigils in Seoul late on Wednesday and called for Yoon's resignation.
The impeachment motion against Yoon paved the way for a vote to be held in the following 24 to 72 hours.
Opposition parties need a two-thirds majority to pass the impeachment bill. If it passes, South Korea's Constitutional Court will then decide whether to uphold the motion– a process that could take up to 180 days.
If Yoon were to be suspended from exercising power due to parliament passing the bill, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would fill in as leader.
If the embattled president resigned or was removed from office, a new election would be held within 60 days.
NO SPECIFIC THREATS
Yoon told the nation in a television speech late on Tuesday that martial law was needed to defend the country from pro-North Korean anti-state forces, and protect the free constitutional order, although he cited no specific threats.
Within hours, South Korea's parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, unanimously passed a motion for martial law be lifted, with 18 members of Yoon's party present.
The president then rescinded the declaration of martial law, around six hours after its proclamation.
"There are opinions that it was too much to go to emergency martial law, and that we did not follow the procedures for emergency martial law, but it was done strictly within the constitutional framework," a South Korean presidential official told Reuters by telephone.
There has been no reaction yet from North Korea to the drama in the South.
Yoon was embraced by leaders in the West as a partner in the U.S.-led effort to unify democracies against growing authoritarianism in China, Russia and elsewhere.
But he caused unease among South Koreans by branding his critics as "communist totalitarian and anti-state forces". In November, he denied wrongdoing in response to influence-peddling allegations against him and his wife and he has taken a hard line against labour unions.
The martial law crisis rattled global financial markets and left South Korea's benchmark KOSPI index down 1.4%. Currency dealers reporting suspected state intervention to keep the won stable after overnight talks between Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong.
Choi sent an emergency note to global financial chiefs and credit rating agencies late on Wednesday to say the finance ministry was working to alleviate any adverse impact from political turmoil, the ministry said.
Yoon, a career prosecutor, squeezed out a victory in the tightest presidential election in South Korean history in 2022, riding a wave of discontent over economic policy, scandals and gender wars.
But his support ratings have been at around 20% for months and the opposition captured nearly two-thirds of seats in parliament in an April election.
Martial law been declared more than a dozen times since South Korea was established as a republic in 1948. In 1980, a group of military officers forced then-President Choi Kyu-hah to proclaim martial law to crush calls for the restoration of democratic government.
(Reporting by Jack Kim, Ju-min Park, Hyonhee Shin, Hyunsu Yim, Heekyong Yang, Joyce Lee, Josh Smith, Hyunjoo Jin and Cynthia Kim; Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, David Brunnstrom in Washington, Trevor Hunnicutt in Luanda and Humeyra Pamuk in Brussels; Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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