Yoon defends martial law as an act of governance and vows to ‘fight to the end’

People watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol defended his martial law decree as an act of governance and denied rebellion charges, vowing yesterday to “fight to the end” in response to attempts to impeach him and intensifying investigations into last week’s dramatic move.

The main opposition Democratic Party quickly slammed Yoon’s speech as “an expression of extreme delusion” and “false propaganda.” Later Thursday, it and other opposition parties submitted a new impeachment motion against Yoon for a floor vote this weekend.

The opposition-controlled parliament also passed motions yesterday to impeach and suspend Yoon’s police chief and justice minister over the imposition of martial law, escalating the pressure on Yoon’s embattled government.

Yoon’s short-lived Dec. 3 martial law declaration has generated political chaos and large protests calling for his ouster. The decree brought hundreds of armed troops who attempted to encircle parliament and raid the election commission, though no major violence or injuries occurred. Martial law lasted only six hours as Yoon was forced to lift it after the National Assembly unanimously voted it down.

In a televised speech yesterday, Yoon, a conservative, said he enacted martial law as a warning to the liberal Democratic Party. He called the party “a monster” and “anti-state forces” that he said tried to use its legislative muscle to impeach top officials, undermined the government’s budget bill for next year and sympathized with North Korea.

“I will fight to the end to prevent the forces and criminal groups that have been responsible for paralyzing the country’s government and disrupting the nation’s constitutional order from threatening the future of the Republic of Korea,” Yoon said. “The opposition is now doing a sword dance of chaos, claiming that the declaration of martial law constitutes to an act of rebellion. But was it really?”

Yoon said martial law was an act of governance that cannot be the subject of investigations and doesn’t amount to rebellion. He said the deployment of nearly 300 soldiers to the National Assembly was designed to maintain order, not dissolve or paralyze it.

Kim Min-seok, head of a Democratic Party task force, dismissed Yoon’s statement as “an expression of extreme delusion” and “a declaration of war against the people.”

It’s unclear how Yoon’s comments will affect his fate. Opposition parties hold 192 seats combined, eight votes short of a two-thirds majority of the 300 members of the National Assembly. The earlier attempt to impeach Yoon failed with most lawmakers from Yoon’s governing People Power Party boycotting the vote.

Yoon’s speech was expected to deepen a divide inside the PPP. When party chair Han Dong-hun, a critic of Yoon, called Yoon’s statement “a confession of rebellion” during a party meeting, Yoon loyalists angrily jeered and called on Han to stop speaking. Han has urged party members to vote in favor of Yoon’s impeachment.

Opposition parties and even some PPP members say the martial law decree was unconstitutional. South Korean law allows the president to declare martial law during wartime or similar emergencies, and they said such a situation did not exist. They argue that deploying troops to seal the National Assembly to suspend its political activities amounted to rebellion because the constitution doesn’t give a president such rights in any situation.

The country’s law enforcement authorities are investigating whether Yoon and others involved in imposing martial law committed rebellion, abuse of power and other crimes. A conviction for rebellion carries a maximum penalty of death.

The National Assembly on Thursday passed a bill that could introduce an independent counsel to investigate Yoon on rebellion charges without his approval. MDT/AP