Parties hit pause on wrangling over impeachment and came together Sunday, as South Korea began grieving for victims of a plane crash that is presumed to have killed most onboard, according to the latest update from fire authorities.
The plane carrying 181 passengers and crew members crashed upon landing at an airport in Muan, South Jeolla Province, early Sunday, leading both major parties -- the People Power Party and the Democratic Party of Korea -- to convene emergency response meetings and offer condolences to those affected.
“Now is the time to bring the country together and focus on a unified response to the tragedy,” Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the People Power Party floor leader and acting party head, told reporters.
Kweon said the ruling party would launch a task force to investigate the crash and support the families of the victims and survivors.
Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party chair, said in a statement his party would “do everything possible in response to the tragedy.”
About half an hour after the crash, Lee uploaded a Facebook post apparently disparaging President Yoon Suk Yeol and his short-lived martial law declaration earlier this month. In the post, Lee said Yoon and Han Dong-hoon, who resigned as People Power Party chair following the passage of Yoon’s impeachment motion at the National Assembly, “pointed guns at the people.”
The post has since been deleted after it was criticized as “tone-deaf.”
The Democratic Party and the People Power Party leaders were set to head to Muan late Sunday and Monday morning, respectively, canceling other plans and regular National Assembly duties.
For the last couple of days, the Democratic Party, which has a firm majority in the Assembly, has threatened yet another impeachment of the top of the executive branch over the pending appointment of Constitutional Court justices.
Three out of nine seats on the bench of the Constitutional Court, which must decide whether to uphold the Assembly’s impeachment of Yoon or keep him in power, have remained unfilled since the previous justices left after their terms ended in October.
Before the martial law debacle, the Democratic Party was not keen on filling the Constitutional Court vacancy.
Despite laws that require the appointment of new justices within 30 days of the seats on the Constitutional Court being vacated, the Democratic Party had dragged the process out in a bid to push its favored candidates.
It was not until after the motion to impeach Yoon passed in the Assembly that the Democratic Party reversed its approach and began demanding the People Power Party get on board with the appointment of the Constitutional Court justices.
Under the Constitution, three justices on the Constitutional Court are picked by the Assembly and confirmed by the president.
After Han Duck-soo, the prime minister filling in for Yoon, refused to follow through with the formal appointment of the justices, the Democratic Party pulled a historic move of impeaching the acting president in a vote Friday, less than two weeks after Yoon was impeached and suspended from his duties as president.
Top Democratic Party lawmakers said the party would be willing to impeach Choi Sang-mok, the second acting president, if he does not accept the proposed Constitutional Court justice candidates.
Rep. Kim Yun-duck, the Democratic Party's secretary-general, said in a press conference Sunday that Choi “must end the chaos the country is in by appointing the three justices of the Constitutional Court without delay.” “We trust the acting president to do the right thing,” he added.
Four-time Rep. Park Beom-kye, who was justice minister under former President Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party, said in a radio interview Friday that the party “won’t have any choice” but to impeach Choi as well if he maintains the position staked out by Han.
The People Power Party has protested the serial impeachments by the Democratic Party as a “majority dictatorship” in the Assembly. “The Democratic Party abusing majority seats and wielding impeachment as a weapon to get their way is not what democracy looks like,” said Floor Leader Kweon.
Since Yoon entered the presidential office in May 2022, the Democratic Party has introduced 29 impeachment motions against Cabinet members and other senior government officials.
