The Korea Herald

피터빈트

Main opposition files impeachment motion against Interior Minister Lee Sang-min

By Ahn Sung-mi

Published : Dec. 7, 2024 - 15:33

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Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min on Dec. 5 (Yonhap) Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min on Dec. 5 (Yonhap)

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Saturday filed an impeachment motion against Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, accusing him of involvement in President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived imposition of martial law this week.

The liberal party said in a statement that it submitted the impeachment motion to the National Assembly at 10:30 a.m. The party plans to report the motion during Saturday’s plenary session, where the vote on President Yoon’s impeachment will take place.

The vote on the minister's impeachment is expected Tuesday.

A day earlier, the liberal party’s senior party leader Kim Min-seok urged immediate action against the minister, alleging that he “conspired to plan the illegal martial law, distorted the proceedings of a Cabinet meeting to approve such a matter and defended the illegal martial law.”

Kim also raised possibility of another attempt to declare martial law and demanded Lee be stripped of his authority in relation to South Korea's Martial Law Act.

The act designates that only the ministers of defense and interior are eligible to recommend martial law to the president, though it was not Lee but former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun who had proposed the martial law declaration to Yoon. With Kim having recently resigned, Lee is now the sole cabinet member with that power.

This will be Lee’s second time facing possibility of impeachment. In February 2023, the National Assembly voted to impeach Lee for his handling of the Itaewon crowd crush. His impeachment was later dismissed by the Constitutional Court in July. Lee resumed his ministerial duties following the court’s decision.