South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has defended his martial law decree as an act of governance and denied rebellion charges, vowing to “fight to the end” in response to attempts to impeach him.
The main opposition Democratic Party quickly slammed Mr Yoon’s speech as “an expression of extreme delusion” and “false propaganda”.
Later, it and other opposition parties submitted a new impeachment motion against Mr Yoon for a floor vote this weekend.
The opposition-controlled parliament also passed motions on Thursday to impeach and suspend Mr Yoon’s police chief and justice minister over the imposition of martial law, escalating the pressure on Mr Yoon’s embattled government.
Mr Yoon’s short-lived December 3 martial law declaration has generated political chaos and large protests calling for his removal.
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 Mr Yoon was forced to lift it after the National Assembly unanimously voted it down.
In a televised speech on Thursday, Mr 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 sympathised with North Korea.
“I will fight to the end to prevent the forces and criminal groups that have been responsible for paralysing the country’s government and disrupting the nation’s constitutional order from threatening the future of the Republic of Korea,” Mr 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?”
Mr Yoon said martial law was an act of governance that cannot be the subject of investigations and does not amount to rebellion. He said the deployment of nearly 300 soldiers to the National Assembly was designed to maintain order, not dissolve or paralyse it.
Kim Min-seok, head of a Democratic Party task force, dismissed Mr Yoon’s statement as “an expression of extreme delusion” and “a declaration of war against the people.”
Mr Kim accused the president of attempting to incite pro-Yoon riots by far-right forces. He said the Democratic Party will focus on getting the motion impeaching Yoon passed on Saturday.
It is unclear how Mr 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 Mr Yoon failed with most lawmakers from Mr Yoon’s governing People Power Party boycotting the vote.
Mr Yoon’s speech was expected to deepen a divide inside the PPP. When party chair Han Dong-hun, a critic of Mr Yoon, called Mr Yoon’s statement “a confession of rebellion” during a party meeting, Yoon loyalists angrily jeered and called on Han to stop speaking.
Mr Han has urged party members to vote in favour of Mr 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 does not give a president such rights in any situation.
The country’s law enforcement authorities are investigating whether Mr 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 Mr Yoon on rebellion charges without his approval.
A bill it endorsed earlier this week on appointing an independent counsel requires Mr Yoon’s approval. The Justice Ministry on Monday placed an oversea travel ban on Mr Yoon.
South Korean law gives a president immunity from prosecution while in office, except for allegations of rebellion or treason. This means that Mr Yoon can be questioned and detained by investigative agencies over his martial law decree, but many observers doubt that authorities will forcefully detain him because of the potential for clashes with his presidential security service.
On Wednesday, Mr Yoon’s presidential security service did not allow police to search the presidential office.
Mr Yoon’s statement was seen as an about-face. Last Saturday, he apologised over declaring martial law and said he would not avoid responsibility for it.
He said he would leave it to his party to chart a course through the political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.”
On Wednesday, Mr Yoon’s former defence minister, Kim Yong Hyun, was arrested on allegations of playing a key role in a rebellion and committing abuse of power.
The national police chief, Cho Ji Ho, and the head of Seoul’s metropolitan police have been detained while their actions of sending police forces to the National Assembly are investigated as a criminal matter.
The impeachment motion against Mr Cho accuses him of committing rebellion and violating other laws by deploying police forces to the parliament after martial law was announced.
The separate motion for Justice Minister Park Sung Jae accuses him of rebellion because he didn’t question the constitutionality of Mr Yoon’s martial law decree and did not actively stop its enforcement.
Mr Kim, who resigned after martial law was lifted, is one of Mr Yoon’s close associates. He has been accused of recommending martial law to Mr Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting on it. He tried to kill himself in detention, but correctional officers stopped him and he was in stable condition, according to the Justice Ministry.
In his speech, Mr Yoon said he had discussed imposing martial law only with Mr Kim before he informed other top officials about it at a Cabinet meeting just before its declaration.
On the night of December 3, besides the National Assembly, Mr Yoon and Mr Kim sent troops to the National Election Commission.
That raised speculation that he might have tried to seize computer servers at the commission as he believed unfounded rumours that the results of April’s parliamentary elections, in which his party suffered steep losses, were rigged.
Mr Yoon said he asked Mr Kim to examine the supposed vulnerabilities of the commission’s computer systems, which Mr Yoon said was hampering the credibility of election results.
He accused the commission of resisting a thorough inspection by Seoul’s spy agency following a cyberattack attributed to North Korea-backed hackers last year.
If Mr Yoon is impeached, his presidential powers would be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office or restore his powers. If he is dismissed, a new presidential election would be required within 60 days.
