South Korea prosecutors open criminal probe against Yoon
SEOUL—South Korea’s leadership crisis deepened on Sunday as prosecutors named President Yoon Suk-yeol as a subject of a criminal investigation over last week’s martial law attempt, a media report said, and his former defense minister was arrested.
Yoon survived an impeachment vote in the opposition-led parliament late on Saturday, prompted by his short-lived attempt to impose martial law on Tuesday, but the leader of his own party said the president would effectively be excluded from his duties before eventually stepping down.
That proposal, which appeared to win tacit approval from the Yoon-appointed prime minister on Sunday, drew condemnation from opposition lawmakers who said it was another unconstitutional power grab to delegate authority without resignation or impeachment.
Thousands of people rallied in front of the parliament in Seoul on Sunday, calling for the impeachment and arrest of Yoon and the disbandment of his ruling party.
Yoon’s martial law declaration on Tuesday plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a key US military ally into its greatest political crisis in decades, threatening to shatter South Korea’s reputation as a democratic success story.
Sidelined
The leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, told a press conference alongside the prime minister on Sunday that Yoon would not be involved in foreign and other state affairs before his early resignation.
But National Assembly speaker Woo Won-shik said it was unconstitutional to delegate presidential authority to the prime minister and the ruling party without impeachment. Woo proposed a meeting of rival parties to discuss ways to suspend Yoon’s presidential power immediately.
The main opposition Democratic Party called for the immediate suspension of Yoon’s presidential duties and for stripping him of authority to control the military. The DP called for the arrest of Yoon and related military officials implicated in the martial law fiasco.
