South Korea's parliament fails to pass impeachment motion against President Yoon

SEOUL - South Korea's parliament on Saturday failed to pass President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment motion as most of ruling People Power Party lawmakers refused to vote on it.

After voting against a bill to investigate scandals involving Yoon's wife, most of the 108 ruling party lawmakers left the parliament hall.

One ruling party lawmaker remained at the hall and two came back after leaving.

Of 300 National Assembly lawmakers, 198 voted for the bill on the special prosecutor investigation of the first lady, with 102 against it. At least two-thirds of the lawmakers need to vote yes to pass the bill in revote.

Lawmakers of the opposition parties, including the main liberal Democratic Party, named the ruling party lawmakers one by one in unison, calling on them to come back and cast ballots.

More than 200 lawmakers are required to vote yes to pass the impeachment motion.

National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik ended the voting process about three hours after waiting for the ruling party lawmakers, announcing the impeachment motion was scrapped on lack of quorum.

Outside the parliament building, hundreds of thousands of civilians held a candlelight rally to demand the vote for Yoon's impeachment.

The Democratic Party and five other minor parties submitted the impeachment motion over the president's martial law declaration Wednesday.

Yoon declared an emergency martial law Tuesday night before repealing it early Wednesday as the parliament voted against it. The revocation was approved at a cabinet meeting.

According to the proposed motion, the declaration can be made only when the country faces "state of war, serious incident or other comparable national emergency" that lead to engagement with the enemy or extreme disturbance of social order.

The opposition noted that no sign of national emergency was detected at the time of Yoon's declaration, denouncing Yoon for not notifying the National Assembly the martial law imposition which violates both the constitution and the martial law.

The opposition said in the motion that Yoon committed an attempted treason to evade public calls to investigate and punish himself and his wife for criminal acts by instructing the defense minister to mobilize troops illegally and paralyze the parliament.

According to a survey of 504 voters conducted on Wednesday by the local pollster Realmeter, 73.6 percent were in favor of Yoon's impeachment, while 24.0 percent were against it.

Even in North Gyeongsang province and the city of Daegu, regraded as a traditional home turf for the conservative bloc, 66.2 percent agreed on the impeachment.

Those who termed Yoon's martial law declaration as insurrection hit 69.5 percent, while 24.9 percent disagreed with it.

Yoon has struggled with scandals involving his wife Kim Keon-hee during a presidential campaign and since he won the single five-year presidency in May 2022.

Kim was suspected of having been involved in stock price manipulation to gain illicit profits while having interfered in candidate nominations for the 2022 by-elections and the 2024 parliamentary elections and even in public opinion manipulation during the 2022 presidential election.

According to a Gallup Korea poll, Yoon's approval rating dived 3 percentage points from a week earlier to 16 percent this week, marking the lowest since Yoon took office in May 2022.