
What just happened in South Korea? | BBC News
BBC News- 95 views
- 27 Dec 2024
South Korea has voted to impeach its acting president Han Duck-soo just two weeks after parliament voted to impeach its ...
Hello.
We start with breaking news from South Korea, where in the last few hours, the political crisis has deepened as MPs voted to impeach the country's acting President. There was chaos in Parliament. A majority of lawmakers voted in favor of impeaching Han Dut Su, less than two weeks after he was appointed to the country's leadership, after the impeachment of the former President, Yunsuk Yul, over his failed attempt to impose martial war. Well, Han is accused of aiding and abetting that attempt and also of blocking the appointment of three judges that Parliament had chosen to oversee the case against the former President. Well, now this man, Troy Sang-Mok, the Finance Minister, will become South Korea's third President in the space of just a couple of weeks. In the last few minutes, he said the government has ordered the military to step up vigilance amid fears that North Korea could take advantage of the political Firm oil in the South. Well, I've been getting the latest developments from our correspondent, Jean McKenzie in the capital, Seoul.
What has happened is this is the opposition Party that had voted to impeach Prime Minister Han, who has been standing in as President ever since Yun Songyul was impeached just less than two weeks ago. Now, the opposition Party have a huge majority in Parliament, which means they've been able to get this vote through. But what happened when it went through was that these members of Mr. Yun's Party, the ruling Party, they were the ones that got to their feet, surrounded the speaker of the House, started shouting at him. They are angry that he has even allowed this vote to go ahead. Such is now the political animosity between these two parties. Total political gridlock in this country. How did we get here? Well, over the last couple of days, this row has erupted between the opposition Party and Prime Minister, Han. Mr. Han has refused to appoint the judges that Parliament had chosen to oversee Mr. Yune's impeachment trial. This is the court case that is ultimately going to decide whether Mr. Yune should be barred from office for good or whether he should be reinstated. The opposition Party have decided that Mr. Han, by blocking these appointments, is protecting the President, and so therefore, they say that he's no longer fit to run the country.
What this means, as you said, is that now the finance minister takes over. He is now the third in command. But all this does really is just deepen the political vacuum here in South Korea, and this uncertainty that has been playing out really since Mr. Yun unleashed this uncertainty just over three weeks ago when he decided to impose martial law.
This has global consequences because South Korea is a very important global economy, and political turmoil means economic problems, and the currency we know is on the slide.
It does. South Korea's partners, South Korea's allies, the US, European countries have just been looking on, wondering what on earth is happening. It's come at a diplomatically and interesting time for South Korea because it is awaiting the return of Donald Trump to the White House, which could be a very unsettling time for South Korea, and yet very little attention is going into preparing for that, about thinking about what should and could happen. And as you say, then there is the economy. The economy is suffering. Just today, the South Korean won, South Korea's currency, reached its lowest level against the dollar since the financial crisis, so 16 years ago. People here are nervous about that. It's having a real-world impact on their lives. They are asking, Well, where does this all end? Because what if the finance minister comes in and he also decides not to approve these judges, then the opposition could vote to impeach him as well. This could continue and continue until essentially, South Korea doesn't have a functioning government.
That's our South Korea correspondence. Jean McKenzie with the latest there there from Seoul.