Seoul:
South Korea's embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized but quit on Saturday over his declaration of martial law, with a vote to impeach him hours away and massive street protests planned in Seoul.
Yoon stunned the nation and the international community on Tuesday evening by imposing martial law for the first time in more than four decades and deploying troops and helicopters to parliament.
But lawmakers managed to vote down the decree, forcing Yoon to withdraw the order in the early hours of Wednesday, in a night of extraordinary drama for a country that is supposed to be a stable democracy.
“The declaration of martial law was born out of my desperation as president,” he said in a televised address, his first public appearance since plunging the country into political chaos.
“However, during this process I have caused fear and discomfort to the public. I sincerely apologize to the citizens who were very upset.”
The opposition and key members of his own party have called for him to resign, and parliament will vote on his impeachment later Saturday, although opposition leader Lee Jae-myung told AFP it was not clear the motion could be passed.
Police have said they expect tens of thousands of anti-Yoon protesters to take to the streets ahead of the vote, with organizers hoping 200,000 people will attend.
Yoon did not offer to resign in his brief speech, saying only that he would “entrust the party with measures to stabilize the political situation, including my term in office.”
His People Power Party (PPP) is divided over the issue, with lawmakers late Friday sticking to the official line that they would block impeachment even after party leader Han Dong-hoon said Yoon must leave or Seoul risk more political chaos.
“The normal exercise of the president's duties is impossible under the (current) circumstances, and the president's premature resignation is inevitable,” Han Dong-hoon told reporters early on Saturday.
The opposition bloc has 192 seats in the 300-member parliament, while Yoon's PPP has 108.
Only eight ruling party lawmakers need to defect to get the two-thirds majority needed to pass the vote.
A successful vote would suspend Yoon from office pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court.
Police have begun investigating Yoon and others for alleged rioting. “I will not avoid the issue of legal and political responsibility regarding the declaration of martial law,” Yoon said during his speech.
Opposition leader Lee said Yoon's speech was “very disappointing” given widespread public demands for him to resign.
His speech “only exacerbates the sense of betrayal and anger among citizens,” he said, adding that the only solution to the current political chaos was “the immediate resignation of the president or an early departure through impeachment.” .
An opinion poll published on Friday shows that support for the 63-year-old president is at a record low of 13 percent.
On Friday evening, at least 15,000 anti-Yoon protesters braved the cold weather to gather in Seoul's Yeouido district, where the National Assembly is located.
Some camped out all night despite freezing temperatures, while opposition MPs remained in parliament, fearing Yoon would try a desperate measure to stay in office.
'Anti-state elements'
In his address to the nation late Tuesday, Yoon said martial law would “protect a liberal South Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces and eliminate anti-state elements who plunder people's freedom and happiness.”
Security forces sealed the National Assembly, helicopters landed on the roof and nearly 300 soldiers tried to seal off the building.
But as parliamentary staffers blocked the soldiers with benches and fire extinguishers, enough MPs rushed in – many climbing walls to get in – and voted against Yoon's move.
Soldiers had been ordered to detain key politicians, lawmakers from both parties said, while the chief of the special forces said this week that they had been told to “drag” lawmakers from parliament.
But experts and lawmakers have speculated that the elite special forces soldiers may have been slow to follow orders after discovering they were involved in a political incident rather than a national security incident.
The episode brought back painful memories of South Korea's autocratic past and blindsided allies, while the US government only found out about it through television.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Friday that he “expects the… democratic process to prevail”.
(This story has not been edited by Our staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
