Opposition parties in South Korea submitted a motion on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeoul, who is facing mounting calls to step down after he imposed a short-lived martial law order which thrust the country into political turmoil.
Impeaching Yoon would require the support of two-thirds of the parliament and the backing of at least six of the country’s Constitutional Court judges.
Speaker of the Assembly Woo Won-sik is set to open a session for the motion to be debated, which could happen as early as in two days.
Yoon’s senior advisers and secretaries offered to resign collectively and his Cabinet members, including Defence Minister Kim Yong Hyun, also faced calls to step down, as the nation struggled to make sense of what appeared to be a poorly-thought-out stunt.
Yoon abruptly imposed martial law on the country in a televised address on Tuesday, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces. He accused the nation’s opposition of sympathising with North Korea and said martial law would help “rebuild and protect” the country from falling into ruin.
“I will eliminate anti-state forces as quickly as possible and normalize the country,” he said, while asking the people to believe in him and tolerate “some inconveniences.”
After his declaration, 190 lawmakers of South Korea’s parliament forcibly entered the shuttered building to vote down the decree, which was formally lifted in the early hours of Wednesday morning, just six hours after Yoon passed it.
Yoon’s declaration illegal and demanded he take steps to resign.
“His martial law declaration was originally invalid and a grave violation of the constitution. It was a grave act of rebellion and provides perfect grounds for his impeachment” the party said in a statement.
If Yoon is impeached, he’ll be stripped of his constitutional powers until the Constitutional Court can rule on his fate, with the country’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, taking over his presidential responsibilities.
As calls mounted for Yoon’s Cabinet to resign, Han issued a public message pleading for patience and calling for Cabinet members to “fulfill your duties even after this moment.”
