S Korea’s Yoon apologises for martial law crisis as impeachment vote looms
Al JazeeraSouth Korean lawmakers are scheduled to vote on an opposition motion to impeach the president for declaring martial law earlier this week. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has made a public apology for his attempt to impose martial law this week but did not resign, defying intense pressure to step down – even from some in his own party – only hours before a planned impeachment vote. In a televised address to the nation on Saturday, Yoon said he would not seek to avoid legal and political responsibility for his decision to invoke the emergency measure of martial law for the first time in South Korea since 1980. Yoon said martial law was necessary, accusing opposition members in the National Assembly of launching an unprecedented number of impeachment efforts against members of his administration, effectively paralysing key operations of government, and of handling the budget in a way that undermined the fundamental functions of government, including public safety. Yoon’s move plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy and key US military ally into its greatest political crisis in decades, and threatened to shatter South Korea’s reputation as a democratic success story.