South Korea’s acting president tries to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment Reuters
By Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, on Sunday moved to reassure the country’s allies and calm financial markets, a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted and suspended for trying to rule.
Han spoke with US President Joe Biden by phone, the White House and Han’s office said.
“South Korea will carry out its foreign and security policies without interruption and strive to ensure that the alliance between South Korea and the US is maintained and developed consistently,” Han said, according to a statement from his office.
In an ongoing effort to stabilize the Asian nation’s leadership, the main opposition party announced that it would not seek to censure Han for his involvement in Yoon’s Dec. 1 martial law decision. 3.
“Because the prime minister has already been confirmed as acting president and considering that excessive impeachment would cause confusion in national governance, we have decided not to proceed with the impeachment process,” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung told reporters.
Han, a longtime technocrat chosen by the conservative Yoon as prime minister, was promoted to the constitutional role of acting president while Yoon’s case went to the Constitutional Court.
Demonstrators demanding Yoon’s dismissal braved the cold and filled the streets outside the National Assembly building where he was charged. The crowd was around 200,000, according to police, Yonhap news agency said.
Since Han’s role is only acting president, “I hope he will use less power to run the country stably, rather than be involved in state affairs,” said Jo Sung-woo, a 39-year-old Seoul resident.
About 8.5 kilometers (five miles) away, a very small number of Yoon supporters showed up in the center of Seoul.
“As a citizen, I am very saddened that the impeachment motion was passed,” said Yim Joung-sook, 55. “I can’t bear to see these illegitimate legislators elected by fraudulent elections make bad laws and now the main opposition party is running alone.”
The threat of North Korea
Yoon’s surprise declaration of martial law and the ensuing political crisis rattled markets and South Korea’s diplomatic allies, worried about the country’s ability to deter a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Biden told Han that the US-South Korea alliance has not changed and that Washington will work with Seoul to develop and strengthen the alliance and trilateral cooperation including with neighboring Japan, Han’s office said.
The White House said in a statement that the US president “expressed his appreciation for the stability of democracy and the rule of law in the ROK and reaffirmed the strong commitment of the United States to the people of the ROK,” using the ROK acronym. the official name of the country, the Republic of Korea.
“President Biden expressed his confidence that the Alliance will remain the backbone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region during President Han’s administration.”
Han summoned his Cabinet and National Security Council shortly after Saturday’s impeachment vote and vowed to remain ready to defend against any breach of national security.
Han spoke by phone with the commander of US Forces Korea, expressing concern that North Korea might try to provoke the military, such as launching missiles or cyber attacks, Yonhap said, citing Han’s office. He stressed that the strong bilateral defense relationship is more important than ever, he said.
Our South Korean partners wanted to see a credible and legitimate interim leadership established quickly, said Philip Turner, New Zealand’s former ambassador to South Korea.
“They will be happy to see Prime Minister Han take over as acting president,” he said. “He is talented, knowledgeable and well respected in foreign households.”
But even with an acting president, international partners face months of uncertainty before a new president is elected and a new government is formed, Turner said.
ECONOMIC DIVERSITY
The Constitutional Court has up to six months to decide whether to remove or replace Yoon. If he is removed or resigns, a new election will be held within 60 days.
“At that time the highly capable Korean administration can be relied upon to keep the country’s foreign policy on track, but they will find it difficult to provide clear direction,” Turner said.
South Korean stocks rose for a fourth straight session on Friday on hopes that political uncertainty will ease after the impeachment vote in parliament, which followed a failed vote last week.
Democratic Party leader Lee said that the most pressing issue is the decrease in spending caused by the lack of domestic needs and the government’s reduction of its role in finance.
He called for a National Stability Council for Governance that brings together the government and parliament to discuss financial, economic and livelihood issues.
“To deal with this, I believe it is necessary to urgently discuss an additional budget,” said Lee, adding that the additional budget could include funding to support small businesses and investments related to artificial intelligence and infrastructure to try to curb the electricity shortage.
Parliament, controlled by Lee’s party, passed the 673.3 trillion won ($470.6 billion) 2025 budget bill that cut the government’s 677.4 trillion won proposal, without reaching an agreement with Yoon’s People Power Party and the government.
By law, parliament cannot increase the government’s budget, and at the time the Democratic Party said that an additional budget would be needed to deal with spending money for people to live on.
The party said its cuts are for government reserves, interest costs and funds set aside for the presidency, prosecutors and auditors to carry out classified activities. The government has accused the parliament of delaying the projects of young entrepreneurs.
The deadlock on budget issues was one of the reasons Yoon cited for imposing martial law.
South Korea’s monetary authorities vowed on Sunday to act as needed to stabilize markets while the finance minister said he would announce an economic policy plan by the end of the year.
