Will President Yoon survive second impeachment vote?

Impeachment drive gains momentum ahead of Saturday's vote By Anna J. Park Citizens hold a rally in front of the headquarters of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in Seoul, Tuesday. They call for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the dissolution of the PPP.

Yonhap The National Assembly is widely expected to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, Saturday, over his short-lived martial law declaration on Dec. 3, as a growing number of ruling People Power Party (PPP) members are voicing to support the motion, according to political experts and party officials, Wednesday. Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) spokesperson Rep.



Kang Yu-jung said that the party will hold the second impeachment vote at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The opposition party is expected to reintroduce the impeachment bill Thursday. This decision came after the first vote on Dec. 7 failed to reach the necessary quorum due to a boycott by the ruling People Power Party (PPP).

Only three PPP lawmakers — Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, Rep. Kim Yea-ji and Rep.

Kim Sang-wook — participated in that vote. However, the political landscape has drastically changed since then in favor of impeaching the president, as public outrage and mounting pressure against the ruling party have grown. Analysts now view that it is increasingly unlikely that PPP lawmakers, who hold the decisive votes for the motion, will stage another boycott.

Congratulatory wreaths delivered to People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Kim Sang-wook are on display in front of his office in Ulsan, Tuesday, after he said he will vote to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol in the second impeachment vote on Saturday. Yonhap The anonymous nature of the impeachment vote increases the likelihood of its passage, as it allows ruling party lawmakers to vote independently without party pressure.

Combined with growing public sentiment and the fear that blindly opposing impeachment could potentially drag the ruling party into a political tsunami alongside Yoon, whose political life is now widely regarded as coming to an end, this has heightened expectations that the impeachment motion may secure the necessary support to pass this time. Rep. Kim Sang-wook, one of the three ruling party members who voted in favor of the impeachment last Saturday, revealed that at least 10 lawmakers from the ruling party have privately expressed their support for the motion.

Rep. Kim Jae-sub, another reformist faction member of the PPP, publicly called on the party to adopt impeachment as its official stance. "I, who previously abstained from the impeachment vote, now seek to impeach President Yoon.

As the president has refused to step down, I urge the PPP to officially support impeachment," Kim said at the press briefing room at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. A protester stomps on chrysanthemums during a staged funeral ceremony for the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in front of the PPP headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap Political analysts suggest that the number of votes in favor of impeachment within the ruling party would increase, heightening the likelihood of the motion passing this time.

"First, this time the PPP cannot avoid participating in the impeachment vote due to the widespread public anger. If they attend, the anonymous vote would increase the likelihood that lawmakers will vote according to their conscience," Park Sang-byung, a political commentator, told The Korea Times on Wednesday. He explained that the second reason lies in impeachment would allow more time to Yoon until at least March or April next year, as the motion needs to be confirmed at the Constitutitonal Court, compared to voluntary resignation whose effect will take place immediately.

"Furthermore, even if Yoon were to voluntarily resign, it’s unlikely the opposition would accept the idea. Also, there’s the risk of what would happen if Yoon refuses to step down. Lastly, as Yoon has reportedly started hiring legal counsel to prepare for the impeachment, PPP lawmakers would feel less burdened to cast votes on the favor of impeachment," he explained.

"Taking all this into account, the likelihood of impeachment passing is 80 percent. If it fails this time, the probability of impeachment succeeding later becomes 100 percent," Park said. Another political watcher, Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University, told The Korea Times that he also thinks the impeachment motion will pass the parliamentary bar this Saturday.

"The pro-Yoon faction would also agree on casting votes on the impeachment motion, as the president himself appears to have accepted the idea of the impeachment. From President Yoon’s perspective, impeachment might also be the better option. If he were to step down voluntarily, he could be accused of insurrection and face treason charges.

By taking the case to the Constitutional Court, he would likely attempt to justify the martial law decision as a high-level act of governance," the professor noted. National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap Meanwhile, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik announced the launch of a national investigation into the Dec.

3 martial law situation. Woo emphasized that the National Assembly itself was both a targeted and directly affected institution in this martial law move, given the serious testimony presented at a committee at the National Assembly on Tuesday — referring to the claim that President Yoon ordered to break into the Assembly and drag out lawmakers. "If this testimony is true, it suggests that the president attempted to prevent the National Assembly from lifting the martial law by using coercion, effectively trying to render the Assembly's powers unusable," Woo said.

stressing a thorough investigation is necessary to identify who issued the orders, for what purpose and how these events unfolded, outlining the need for investigation..