South Korea’s President Yoon backs out of plan to visit parliament amid chaos

Laura Bicker
in Seoul

Han says he’s found new information about the night when martial law was declared, and there is evidence that President Yoon was going to put politicians in a detention centre.

Yoon remains a risk to the public safety and to the Republic of Korea now, he says, and that is his reasoning for coming out today and saying that it is time that he is removed from office.

The opposition only needs eight defectors to vote with them for the impeachment to go through. Although Han does not have a vote, this does signal to his party that there will be no repercussions if they decide to cross the aisle onto the opposition side on this and vote with them.

It is also important to know why PPP might not want Yoon impeached. This all goes back to 2016 when the then president Park Geun-hye was impeached. At that time, they thought by impeaching her and seeing the back of it, they would hopefully win the next election.

But they did not. Instead, they got a drubbing at the polls after that impeachment.

With the memories of that lingering on, the party will fear that if an election does have to happen, that they will be defeated resoundingly.

But there maybe is a thinking now that if they do not vote for impeachment, that might run against them just as much as they do. And seeing the continual protests on the streets might be having an influence on them.

Image source, EPA