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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will step down from state affairs, including leading the country’s diplomacy, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced Sunday, as his government seeks to negotiate an “orderly exit.”
Yoon survived recall attempt on Saturday night, after members of his conservative People’s Power (PPP) party boycotted the vote amid chaotic scenes in the country’s national assembly.
The result of the vote, which was met with horror by hundreds of thousands of people gathered outside the parliament, is likely to extend growing political crisis in the fourth largest economy in Asia.
Opposition parties have vowed to file the same impeachment motion every week until Yoon resigns or is removed over the failed attempt to impose military rule, during which sent troops to try to prevent parliament from overriding his emergency decree.
Defending his party’s decision to boycott the impeachment vote, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon said its leaders would “demand an orderly resignation from Yoon” to “minimize confusion and turmoil”.
Han said in a joint public appearance with the prime minister on Sunday that “President Yoon will not be involved in running state affairs, including diplomacy, even before his resignation.”
“The government will do its best to maintain the trust of our allies,” said Prime Minister Han, Yoon’s appointment and a career technocrat. Most importantly, the adoption of the state budget plan and accompanying laws is essential for the normal functioning of the state.
Analysts say the PPP’s strategy appears to have been to avoid a split over the impeachment vote while buying time to prepare for the presidential election that will follow Yoon’s departure.
But they warned that the party’s deal with the president, which included his brief televised apology in his only public appearance since the emergency decree was lifted, was unlikely to quell growing public anger.
On Sunday, prosecutors said they had arrested former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, the president’s high school classmate accused of playing a central role in planning and implementing the failed martial law. Kim resigned from his post after an apparent coup attempt.
Yoon, a staunch pro-American best known in the US for his performance of “American Pie” at a state dinner in Washington last year, has mended ties with neighboring Japan and taken a more hawkish stance on North Korea and China than his leftist predecessor Moon Jae-in.
Western diplomats expect any left-wing successor to halt growing trilateral military and political cooperation with the US and Japan, pursue a more conciliatory line with North Korea, China and Russia and cut off arms deliveries to Ukraine.
