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South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol will step back from state affairs, including conduct of the country’s diplomacy, prime minister Han Duck-soo announced on Sunday, as his cabinet seeks to negotiate an “orderly exit”.
Yoon survived an impeachment attempt on Saturday night, after members of his conservative People Power party (PPP) boycotted the vote amid chaotic scenes in the country’s national assembly.
The result of the vote, which was met with dismay by the hundreds of thousands of people gathered outside parliament, is likely to prolong a mounting political crisis in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Opposition parties have promised to file the same impeachment motion every week until Yoon resigns or is removed over his failed attempt to impose military rule, during which he dispatched troops to try to stop parliament over-ruling his martial law decree.
Defending his party’s decision to boycott the impeachment vote, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon said that its leaders would “pursue an orderly resignation from Yoon” in order to “minimise confusion and turmoil”.
On Sunday, Han said in a joint public appearance with the prime minister that “president Yoon will not be involved in handling state affairs, including diplomacy, even before his resignation”.
“The government will do its best to keep the trust of our allies,” said prime minister Han, a Yoon appointee and career technocrat. “Most importantly, the approval of the government budget plan and accompanying bills is key to the country’s normal operation.”
Analysts said the PPP’s strategy appeared to be to avoid a split over an impeachment vote, while buying time to prepare for a presidential election that would follow Yoon’s departure.
But they warned the party’s deal with the president, which involved him delivering a terse, televised apology in his only public appearance since withdrawing the martial law decree, was unlikely to quell growing public anger.
On Sunday, prosecutors said they had arrested former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, a high school classmate of the president accused of playing a central role in planning and executing the doomed martial law gambit. Kim resigned from his post in the aftermath of the apparent coup attempt.
Yoon, a staunch pro-American best known in the US for his rendition of “American Pie” at a state dinner in Washington last year, has repaired ties with neighbouring Japan and pursued a more hawkish stance towards North Korea and China than his leftwing predecessor Moon Jae-in.
Western diplomats expect any leftwing successor to halt burgeoning trilateral military and political co-operation with the US and Japan, pursue a more conciliatory line with North Korea, China and Russia and rule out arms supplies to Ukraine.
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