SEOUL: South Korea’s interior minister resigned on Sunday following the brief declaration of martial law that plunged the country into turmoil, local media reported.
Lee Sang-min said he was stepping down “in grave recognition of responsibility for failing to serve the public and the president well”, according to the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper.
President Yoon Suk Yeol accepted his resignation, the paper said. Lee and Yoon are among those being investigated for alleged insurrection following the declaration of martial law on Tuesday.
Yoon, who narrowly survived an impeachment motion in parliament on Saturday, was forced to rescind martial law after lawmakers voted down his decree.
Earlier on Sunday, Police arrested Kim Yong-hyun, who was defence minister at the time of the martial law operation. Kim had already been handed a travel ban.
Late Saturday President Yoon Suk Yeol survived an impeachment motion in parliament despite huge street protests outside.
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Opposition parties proposed the impeachment motion, which needed 200 votes in the 300-member parliament to pass, but a near-total boycott by Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) doomed it to failure.
The PPP said after the vote that it had blocked the impeachment to avoid “severe division and chaos,” adding that it would “resolve this crisis in a more orderly and responsible manner.”
Party leader Han Dong-hoon said that the party had “effectively obtained” Yoon’s promise to step down, and said until this happened he would “be effectively excluded from his duties,” leaving the prime minister and party to manage state affairs.
The impeachment outcome disappointed the huge crowds — numbering 150,000 according to police, one million according to organizers — demonstrating outside parliament for Yoon’s ouster. – AFP
