SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's National Assembly approved impeachment motions against Justice Minister Park Sung-jae and National Police Agency Chief Cho Ji-ho over their enforcement of martial law last week.
This is the first time in the country's constitutional history that an impeachment motion against a justice minister has been passed, as well as the first case of an impeachment motion being filed and approved against a police chief.
Both officials will be suspended from their duties as soon as the parliament delivers the impeachment resolutions.
Earlier in the day, President Yoon Suk-yeol defended his Dec. 3 martial law declaration as "an act of governance" and denied insurrection charges, showing no intention to resign.
The embattled president also accused the opposition of framing insurrection charges and paralyzing state affairs with the abuse of impeachment, vowing to fight until the last moment against whether it is impeachment or a martial law probe.
Yoon's public appearance, the first in five days, came as the opposition bloc is pushing for another vote Saturday to impeach him over his botched martial law declaration.
Following Yoon's address, his own ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon called for supporting a parliamentary vote to impeach Yoon as its party stance and instructed his ruling party to convene an ethics committee to discuss whether to demand Yoon leave the party.
"The president's duties must be swiftly straightened out and suspended through the impeachment process," Han told reporters at the National Assembly. "Our party must support impeachment as the party line."
Earlier in the day, Han already called on his party's lawmakers to vote on Yoon's impeachment based on their own "conviction and conscience."
The People Power Party had initially refused to back impeachment, hoping instead Yoon would resign from office. But its leadership said attempts to persuade Yoon had made no progress.
Additionally, the National Assembly passed a special counsel bill to investigate whether Yoon committed insurrection and other violations over his declaration of martial law.
The Assembly also passed a bill mandating a special counsel probe into two key allegations involving first lady Kim Keon-hee -- her alleged involvement in a stock manipulation scheme and interference in election nominations through a power broker.
Meanwhile, police sent their officials again Thursday to the presidential office compound to obtain documents and materials related to the martial law decree, a day after their previous attempt to raid Yoon's office was thwarted.
The National Office of Investigation handling the case said Thursday's raid was for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) headquarters, and the presidential office was not subject to the search. The two are located on the same compound.
Instead of entering the JCS office, the police sought to secure relevant materials voluntarily handed over by the JCS for security reasons.■
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