 "'Stepping aside for a while': Yoon after South Korean MPs vote to impeach him")
Moments after the South Korean Parliament voted to impeach him, Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday said that he would “step aside for a while” as he urged an end to to “politics of excess and confrontation”.
“Though I must now step aside for a while, the journey toward the future… must never come to a stop,” he said in a televised address.
The impeached president added, “Though I stop for now, the journey to the future I’ve walked for the past two and half years must never stop. I will never give up. I will take your criticism, praise, and support to the heart and do my best for the country until the end.”
Yoon was impeached in a second vote by the opposition-led parliament over his short-lived attempt last week to impose martial law, a move that had shocked the nation and split his party.
The impeachment motion was carried after at least 12 members of Yoon’s People Power Party joined the opposition parties, which control 192 seats in the 300-member national assembly, clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for impeachment.
PM vows for ‘stability’
Under the South Korean constitution, once a president is impeached, he will no longer be able to carry out his official duties. The country’s affairs are transferred to the prime minister who will be the head until either the president is reinstated or the next elections.
Therefore, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was appointed by Yoon, has become acting president.
Han said he would make his utmost efforts to ensure stability after Yoon’s impeachment. “I will give all my strength and efforts to stabilise the government,” he told reporters.
According to Yonhap Han is expected to hold an ad hoc meeting as soon as today.
‘Tougher mountain ahead of us’
Talking to protestors who burst into celebrations after the announcement of Yoon’s impeachment outside the Parliament, South Korea’s opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said, “Today is proof that you are the owner of this country.”
He, however, said that there is a “bigger and tougher mountain” ahead.
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