SEOUL: South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, moved on Sunday (Dec 15) to reassure the country’s allies and calm financial markets a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from his duties over a martial law attempt.
Han spoke with outgoing US President Joe Biden by phone, the White House and Han’s office said.
“South Korea will carry out its foreign and security policies without disruption and strive to ensure the South Korea-US alliance is maintained and developed steadfastly,” Han said, according to a statement from his office.
In a further attempt to stabilise the country’s leadership, the main opposition party announced it would not seek to impeach Han for his involvement in Yoon’s Dec 3 martial law decision.
“Given that the prime minister has already been confirmed as acting president and considering that excessive impeachments could lead to confusion in national governance, we have decided not to proceed with impeachment procedures,” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung told reporters.
Prosecutors said Yoon did not appear on Sunday morning in response to a summons for questioning in a criminal investigation into his martial law decision, and they promised to issue another order.
Yoon and a number of senior officials face potential charges of insurrection, abuse of authority and obstructing people from exercising their rights.
The prosecutors’ office did not answer phone calls seeking comment.
Han, a long-time technocrat picked by Yoon as prime minister, was elevated to acting president in accordance with the constitution while Yoon’s case moves to the Constitutional Court.
Demonstrators seeking Yoon’s ouster braved the cold to throng the streets outside the National Assembly building where he was impeached. The crowd was about 200,000, according to police, Yonhap news agency said.
Since Han’s role is only acting president, “I hope he will exercise the minimum power to operate the country stably, rather than actively be involved in state affairs”, said Jo Sung-woo, a 39-year-old Seoul resident.
About 8.5km away, a much smaller number of Yoon supporters (about 41,000 according to Yonhap) demonstrated in the central Seoul area.
“As a citizen, I’m really sad that the impeachment motion was passed,” said Yim Joung-sook, 55. “I really can’t stand to see these illegal lawmakers who were elected by fraudulent elections making evil laws and now this huge opposition party is running wild on their own.”
