South Korea parliament to vote on presidential impeachment motion after martial law debacle News
Alain Seguin at Flickr, from Ottawa, Canada, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
South Korea parliament to vote on presidential impeachment motion after martial law debacle

A motion to impeach President Yoon Seok-yeol was submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on Thursday and is due to be voted on by an anonymous ballot within 72 hours of the session. The motion, filed by the opposition, follows President Seok-yeol’s brief imposition of martial law on Tuesday. The motion was unanimously rejected shortly after by the parliament.

On Thursday, the 16th plenary session of the National Assembly was notified of the motion to impeach President Yoon and the Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-Hyun. Article 65 of the South Korean Constitution outlines that a motion for impeachment “requires a concurrent vote of a majority of the total members of the National Assembly for passage” and must be “approved by two-thirds or more of the total members of the National Assembly.” The Democratic Party, and the ruling party’s opposition, currently holds a majority of 170 seats in the 300-member National Assembly. This means that at least eight members of the President’s party must vote against him.

Article 65 also suspends President Seok-Yeol from exercising his power “until the impeachment has been adjudicated”.  If the vote fails, he will stay in office. If the motion passes, the Prime Minister will serve as acting president while the Constitutional Court rules on whether his crimes are serious enough to warrant impeachment. While the opposition has called for accountability, Article 65’s impeachment mechanism does not extend “further than removal from public office”.

President Yoon Seok-Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, in a televised emergency address, stating that “pro-North Korean anti-state” forces were threatening the safety and freedom of the country. The move sparked mass protests from citizens and garnered international attention. The last declaration of martial law occurred 44 years ago, in 1979. This sparked the pro-democracy movement, leading to democratic rule in 1987. The mechanism for martial law is Article 77 of the South Korean Constitution, which gives the President the power to invoke martial law in times of “national emergency.”

President and CEO of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Greg Scarlatoiu, commented that there might be “some basis to Yoon’s assertion” as the opposition party’s parliamentary majority “has made it impossible for the executive branch to operate.” However, he said the unanimous vote to reject martial law signifies that the president “overreached”.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Innocent VIII authorizes Germany witchcraft prosecutions

Pope Innocent VIII issued the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus on December 5, 1484, authorizing Dominican friars and witch hunters Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger to prosecute witchcraft in Germany. The prosecutions would later give rise to the 1486 publication of Kramer and Sprenger's Malleus Malificarum ("Hammer of the Witches") which prescribed torture as a way to coerce confessions out of suspected witches. Historians view the text as having promoted a misogynistic witch craze in late medieval Europe. Read the full papal bull.

21st Amendment ended Prohibition

On December 5, 1933, the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, ending the ban on the legal sale and importation of alcohol that had been introduced in 1919 by the 18th Amendment. Learn how the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers helped bring about Prohibition's repeal.

Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen

On December 5, 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat broke off diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen in response to the Declaration of Tripoli, which imposed sanctions on Eygpt. These hardline Arab nations had promulgated the Declaration in order to punish Egypt for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. In 1979, Egypt signed a formal peace treaty with Israel, leading to Sadat's assassination in 1981. Learn more from the BBC.