South Korea's ruling party leader said President Yoon Suk Yeol needed to be removed from power for trying to impose martial law, increasing the pressure on him to quit even though members of his People Power Party late on Friday reaffirmed its formal opposition to his impeachment. On Saturday, lawmakers will vote on the main opposition Democratic Party's motion to impeach Yoon, who shocked the nation late on Tuesday when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers in order to root out what he called "anti-state forces" and overcome obstructionist political opponents.
Yoon rescinded the declaration about six hours later after parliament, including some members of his party, voted to oppose the decree.
The conservative PPP has vowed to oppose the impeachment bill, a position it reaffirmed on Friday night following a lengthy meeting of its lawmakers - at least some of whom would need to back it for the motion to succeed.
Acting Defence Minister Kim Seon-ho said reports that had swirled throughout Friday that there might be another attempt to impose martial law were not true.
PPP leader Han had earlier added fuel to those rumours, and suggested the party's stance on impeachment might be shifting, when he said there was "a high risk of extreme actions such as this emergency martial law being repeated" while Yoon remained in power.
He also cited "credible evidence" that Yoon had on Tuesday intended to arrest and detain political leaders at Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, and called for Yoon's "immediate suspension". He did not explicitly call for impeachment or respond to reporters when asked for clarification.
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said there was still a possibility of another spontaneous late-night declaration by Yoon, though he did not offer substantive evidence.
"The situation is getting worse, there are fewer ways (for Yoon) to escape," Lee said in an interview. "That's why it's very dangerous tonight, because the only chance he has is tonight, and tomorrow morning."
SHOCKED: South Korean author and Nobel Literature Prize winner Han Kang said she had been deeply shocked by the news of martial law being declared this week in her homeland, and that force must not be used to suppress the public. "I watched with shock the situation that was unfolding," she told a press conference while in Stockholm where she was due to receive the prestigious award worth 11 million Swedish crowns ($1 million) next week.
The Swedish Academy lauded Han, the first South Korean to win the literature prize, for "her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life" when it announced her as the winner in October. Han lived as a child in Gwangju, a city known for the killing of people protesting against what was then the ruling dictatorship more than four decades ago that sparked nationwide democracy movements. Her novel "Human Acts" is about victims from this era. - Reuters
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