South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol has accepted the resignation of the country’s Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun and nominated the country’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Choi Byung-hyuk, as the new defence minister.
The president’s office confirmed the nomination of Choi, a former army general, as the new defence minister on Thursday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports.
Yonhap said that Kim had proposed to President Yoon that he declare martial law on Tuesday night, a move that was quickly cut short after South Korea’s parliament voted for Yoon to reverse his decision.
Yoon’s nomination of a new defence minister is his first official act since revoking the declaration of martial law in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The reversal sent hundreds of South Korean troops, who had briefly stormed into the National Assembly compound in Seoul, back to their barracks.
Amid public outrage at the attempt to impose martial law and condemnation of Yoon by opposition parties, South Korea’s parliament introduced a motion early on Thursday to impeach the president.
South Korean police also announced on Thursday they were investigating Yoon for “insurrection” – a crime that transcends presidential immunity and can carry the death penalty – after the opposition filed a complaint against him and other key figures involved.
Woo Jong-soo, head of the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency, told lawmakers that “the case has been assigned,” footage showed.
The crisis in South Korea has unfolded as a mutual defence treaty between North Korea and Russia comes into force.
The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty, which was signed in June between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, came into force on Wednesday, North Korean state media said on Thursday.
The agreement includes a mutual defence pact for immediate military assistance if either Russia or North Korea faces armed aggression.
Chung Jin-suk, Yoon’s chief of staff, said Choi was a fitting choice for the role of new defence minister as he was a retired four-star army general who had served as deputy commander of the South Korea-United States Combined Forces Command from 2019 to 2020.
He described Choi as being a defence minister who would “fulfil the military’s core responsibilities, including maintaining a firm readiness posture based on the robust South Korea-US alliance”, Yonhap reports.
Opposition moves to impeach Yoon
The main opposition Democratic Party has called Yoon’s martial law attempt a treasonous act, and its lawmakers could lead a vote for impeachment as early as Friday.
Yoon’s own party, however, has promised to oppose efforts to remove the president, throwing the impeachment process into doubt.
The floor leader of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party said on Thursday that all their lawmakers would “unite” to defeat the opposition-led motion to impeach the president.
“All 108 lawmakers of the People Power Party will stay united to reject the president’s impeachment,” Choo Kyung-ho said at a livestreamed party meeting.
The opposition does not have enough votes in parliament to pass an impeachment bill and will require eight governing party lawmakers to vote with them for the initiative to be successful.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said the political crisis in South Korea is being followed closely on the international stage given South Korea’s economic and strategic significance.
“From the US, we’ve had messages of support from the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and similar messages from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying that South Korea remains, he says, one of the most powerful stories of democratic resilience,” McBride said.
“And it just so happens that this week – as we’ve had all of this turmoil in South Korea – this has been the week that this military alliance has come into effect between North Korea and Russia,” he said.
“So, interestingly, while you have all of this turmoil south of the DMZ [demilitarised zone]. North of the DMZ, North Korea is watching all of these events with this new pact in place, seemingly strengthened and emboldened,” he added.
