South Korean Parliament approves disqualification of Minister of Justice and Chief of Police

South Korea Parliament, Dec 2024 Photo: Xinhua

December 12, 2024 Hour: 6:03 pm

The South Korean National Assembly passed a motion to dismiss South Korea’s Justice Minister, Park Sung-jae, and Chief Commissioner of the National Police Agency, Cho Ji-ho, on Thursday.

The move comes in the context of the recent martial law decreed last week by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The director of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Kim Bong-sik, was also imprisoned. He is accused of having ordered the closure of the National Assembly in order to prevent parliamentarians from entering the building during the night of 3-4 December.

According to the news agency Yonhap, Cho and Park will be suspended immediately after they are given the relevant documents informing them of the dismissal decision.

VIDEO: 🇰🇷 South Korea's Yoon vows to fight 'until the very last minute'

President Yoon Suk Yeol made the pledge in a defiant televised address defending his shock decision to declare martial law last week. Yoon faces an impeachment vote in parliament on Satrrday.#AFPVertical pic.twitter.com/9KpYdwmlyC
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 12, 2024

Earlier, the South Korean leader offered another message to the nation, in which he reiterated the reasons why he decreed martial law. He rejected the accusation of insurrection and wrote the extraordinary measure as inevitable to safeguard what he called “liberal democracy of the opposition parliamentary dictatorship”.

In addition, this week the National Assembly passed two bills, one to investigate Yoon through a special prosecutor, and another that requires the creation of a permanent special prosecutor to investigate the imposition of martial law.