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People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon (left) and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. (courtesy of the People Power Party)

After the motion to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol failed in the National Assembly on Saturday, People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon announced that the president would be “effectively excluded” from official duties until he leaves office. 

Among the 108 PPP lawmakers, 105 boycotted the impeachment vote, resulting in a failure to reach the parliamentary quorum required to pass. Meeting with reporters after the proceedings concluded, Han called the martial law declaration on Tuesday a “clear and serious violation of the Constitution.” 

“The president entrusted [decisions about] the remainder of his term and position as president to the party,” Han said, calling this “effectively a promise that he will depart office early.”

After thwarting an impeachment vote while thousands of enraged Koreans called for Yoon’s impeachment on the streets of Seoul, it appears that the PPP is claiming that they were not trying to protect Yoon by boycotting the vote. Yet the opposition’s position is that they will not accept a constitutional revision that would reduce the president’s term, a measure the PPP is reviewing; they will only accept an immediate impeachment. 

“In order to reduce chaos, the People Power Party will push for President Yoon’s orderly resignation,” Han announced, saying that the president had already agreed to follow the party’s decision when it comes to his term and emphasizing that efforts would be made to reduce turmoil. 

Han said his party would proceed “transparently and predictably in the methods that best serve the Republic of Korea and its people, to ease their concerns.” 

During that process, Han said the ruling party would work with the Democratic Party and “faithfully exchange opinions with the opposition.” 
 
“I will work with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and the party to ensure that there are no hiccups in national governance,” Han said. 

The ruling party leader met with the prime minister on Sunday. They were expected to discuss specific damage control measures, such as reducing the president’s term. 

Earlier that morning, Yoon had announced that he would “entrust national stability measures, including those regarding [his] term, to the party.” Afterward, Han quickly changed his stance from advocating for the “immediate suspension” of the president’s power to advocating his early departure from office. 

Han vowed to thoroughly discuss issues with the prime minister and the party to “prevent the public livelihood from suffering and the foreign affairs situation from deteriorating.”

Han immediately proceeded to hold an emergency meeting with the prime minister at the prime minister’s residence in Seoul’s Samcheong neighborhood for 80 minutes. After returning to the National Assembly after the meeting, Han said, “I called on the prime minister to carefully attend to the public livelihood economy and the national governance situation to stabilize the situation and reduce public anxiety.” 

By Jeon Gwang-joon, staff reporter

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