South Korean Parliament impeaches police chief and justice minister over martial law

People take part in a protest calling for the ouster of South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol outside the National Assembly in Seoul, on December 6. Pic/AFP

South Korea's National Assembly on Thursday voted to impeach the national police chief and justice minister over their enforcement of martial law last week, AP reported.

As per AP, the opposition-controlled assembly is planning to file a second impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol later in the day following the first motion that failed last Saturday under a government party boycott.

The South Korean president, in a televised statement, defended his martial law decree as an act of governance and denied rebellion charges.

Earlier this week, the national police chief, Cho Ji Ho, was detained for investigation. The vote on Thursday suspends Cho and Justice Minister Park Sung Jae from their duties.

South Korea's national police chief and Seoul's top officer detained over enforcement of martial law.

South Korea's national police chief and top police officer for the capital, Seoul, were detained over the enforcement of President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived martial law decree previously, AP cited.

The development came hours before the main liberal opposition party, the Democratic Party, submitted a new motion to impeach Yoon on the martial law introduction. The party said it aims to put the motion on a floor vote.

Earlier, Yoon's former defence minister, Kim Yong Hyun, was arrested after a Seoul court approved an arrest warrant for him on allegations of playing a key role in rebellion and committing abuse of power. Kim became the first person arrested over the December 3 martial law decree.

Opposition parties and many experts said that the martial law decree was unconstitutional. They said a president is by law allowed to declare martial law only during 'wartime, war-like situations, or other comparable national emergency states,' and South Korea wasn't in such a situation, AP cited.

They argued that deploying troops to seal the National Assembly to suspend its political activities amounted to rebellion because the South Korean Constitution doesn't allow a president to use the military to suspend parliament in any situation.

As per AP, in his martial law announcement, the conservative Yoon stressed a need to rebuild the country by eliminating 'shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces,' a reference to his liberal rivals who control parliament.

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has had near-constant friction with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which introduced motions to impeach some of his top officials and launched a political offensive over scandals involving Yoon and his wife.

(With inputs from AP)