South Korea: vote to impeach president Yoon fails

CGTN Europe

The motion to impeach South Korea’s president Yoon failed today in the parliament after Yoon’s governing People Power Party (PPP) left the chamber. CGTN’s Ciaran McQuillan reports.

Transcript

00:00There were chaotic scenes in the National Assembly building behind me in the Parliamentary

00:05Chambers. That impeachment vote was about to go through. 108 members of the ruling People Power

00:14Party, the vast majority of them dramatically walking out of the Chamber just as that

00:19impeachment vote was about to go through. There are 200 votes required, two-thirds that is,

00:25of the 300-member Chamber, so not enough votes this time around to impeach President

00:31Jun. The opposition say they will try again on Wednesday, which is the next time that the

00:38National Assembly behind me will sit. Now, despite nationwide protests calling on President Jun

00:45to step aside, he's not been seen in public since Tuesday when he made that declaration

00:51of martial law. He did, however, briefly appear on national television this morning.

00:55He apologized for his actions. He said he would take full responsibility, that he would not

01:01shirk away from the legal or political responsibilities, and that he would leave it

01:06to his party, the People Power Party, to chart a course through the current political chaos.

01:12It does seem that the party has indeed charted that course by walking out of the Chamber here.

01:17South Korean politics very much paralyzed now. President Jun throwing this country into turmoil,

01:25the worst political crisis since the impeachment of President Park Hong-hae back in 2016.

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