(Bloomberg) -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol lost the support of a key ally, increasing the chances he’ll be impeached over his attempt to impose martial law in a vote likely to take place Saturday.
In an abrupt U-turn on Friday, Han Dong-hoon — head of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party — called for the president to be suspended from office quickly. Citing credible evidence that Yoon ordered the arrest of key politicians on the night he declared martial law, Han told parliament it would be dangerous to allow the president to stay in office.
“Considering the newly revealed facts, I believe that a swift suspension of Yoon’s duties is necessary to protect the people of the Republic of Korea,” Han said, explaining why he shifted his position from a day earlier. He didn’t elaborate on the evidence.
“If Yoon continues to serve as the president of the Republic of Korea, there is a high risk that extreme actions such as this emergency martial law will be repeated, and that this will put the Republic of Korea and its people at great risk,” he said.
While it isn’t clear how widely Han’s views are shared within the party, his faction holds about 20 lawmakers, and they were among those who joined with the opposition in the early-morning hours of Wednesday to vote down the martial law order. If they stay united, that would be enough to swing the vote against Yoon.
Yoon and Han held a meeting Friday, but the talks delivered no breakthrough in the political crisis.
The fast-moving events roiled markets, which whipsawed as speculation spread that Yoon would impose martial law once again — prompting a swift denial from South Korea’s military. Korea’s equity benchmark Kospi finished the day around 0.6%, having dropping as far as 1.8% after opening with gains. The won was weaker against the dollar, after paring losses that reached 0.8% in the morning.
Han’s stark reversal puts Yoon in a vulnerable position. For the motion to be successful, the opposition Democratic Party needs only eight of the 108 lawmakers in the PPP to switch sides and vote to remove Yoon. The Democratic Party controls parliament after a big win in April legislative elections.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who heads the Democratic Party, welcomed Han’s remarks but said it was not clear if they represented a consensus among ruling party members.
“It does sound like he is in favor of impeachment, but we don’t know if he will say he didn’t mean that at some point,” Lee said in parliament shortly after Han’s remarks.
Yoon Sang-hyun, a five-term lawmaker at the ruling party, said Han’s remarks were not coordinated fully within the party, adding that key members opposed dropping support for Yoon.
“We cannot helplessly hand over the government to Lee Jae-myung’s Democratic Party,” Yoon Sang-hyun said in a Facebook post. “I cannot join the impeachment of the president, not to protect President Yoon, but to protect the system of South Korea, our descendants and the future.”
Other members took a different view. Ahn Cheol-soo, another PPP lawmaker, told reporters he would support an impeachment motion against Yoon unless the president decides to step down by Saturday when the vote takes place.
At a meeting Friday evening that looked set to continue late into the night, the party appeared to remain splintered. Han stuck to his viewpoint, while the party’s official policy on opposing impeachment remained unchanged, according to PPP member Shin Dong-wook.
Hundreds of protesters calling for the impeachment of Yoon gathered for a candlelight vigil outside the National Assembly, though they had yet to attract the huge numbers seen back in 2016 when people rallied there against then-President Park Geun-hye.
Further details continued to emerge from the day of the martial law declaration. The head of South Korea’s Army Special Forces said he defied an order from Yoon’s former defense chief to drag lawmakers out of National Assembly’s main building to enforce a martial law decree earlier this week.
“I judged that it was clearly illegal to drag out the lawmakers, and troops who carry out the task would naturally be held legally responsible later,” Kwak Jong-keun said, referring to the instruction he received from then Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who later resigned.
Some military officers face a possible overseas travel ban stemming from their involvement in the events that started Tuesday night, according to a Defense Ministry statement.
President Yoon’s approval rating on Friday fell to 16%, the lowest level since he took office in 2022, according to the latest poll by Gallup Korea. The poll found that 29% of respondents favored Lee as the next president, while 11% wanted Han to take power.
If the impeachment motion passes, Yoon will be suspended from duty immediately and the prime minister — currently Han Duck-Soo — will serve as interim president. The case would then go to the Constitutional Court to make a final decision, a process that could take several months.
If the court rules in favor of impeachment, an early election would follow soon afterward.
Since the martial law fiasco, the conservative party has faced a dilemma: How to distance themselves from the president without giving the opposition a victory.
On Thursday, Han condemned Yoon’s actions while also saying he would oppose impeachment as he thinks about “the hearts of my supporters as a conservative politician.” For many conservatives, it makes more sense to position themselves to win an election down the road rather than triggering an early vote in which they could get battered.
That calculation changed on Friday for Han.
“Now is the time to think only about the Republic of Korea and its people,” he said.
--With assistance from Youkyung Lee, Seyoon Kim, Jaehyun Eom, Myungshin Cho and Heejin Kim.
(Updates throughout)
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