Seoul, Dec 24 (IANS): South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said it will introduce an impeachment motion against acting President Han Duck-soo on Tuesday over his refusal to promulgate two special counsel bills targetting President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee.
The decision was adopted unanimously at a meeting of DP lawmakers, and the motion will be reported to a plenary parliamentary session Thursday, Yun Jong-kun, a party spokesperson, said.
By law, an impeachment motion must be put to a vote between 24 and 72 hours after it is reported to a plenary session.
A two-thirds majority is required to pass an impeachment motion against the president, but the bar for senior officials is lower at a simple majority.
The ruling People Power Party has argued the acting president should be considered the president when it comes to the vote, while the DP has countered he should be seen as the prime minister, Yonhap news agency reported.
The DP's decision came hours after a Cabinet meeting led by Han ended without reviewing the two bills calling for special counsel investigations into Yoon's short-lived imposition of martial law and corruption allegations involving Kim.
"There is no other way to interpret this than (as a tactic) to buy time and prolong the insurrection," Park Chan-dae, the DP floor leader, said at an earlier party meeting, referring to characterisations of Yoon's martial law declaration as an insurrection.
The party, however, was reportedly considering waiting until Han made a decision on the issue of appointing justices to the Constitutional Court.
The nine-member bench is currently short of three justices ahead of a trial on the National Assembly's impeachment of Yoon over his martial law decree.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik held a press conference earlier in the day and slammed the acting president for postponing a decision on the special counsel bills and the court appointments with a call for bipartisan negotiations toward a compromise.
"The special counsel investigations are a demand of the people," Woo said. "Whether he demands reconsideration or accepts them, that is a decision for the acting president to make."
On the court appointments, Woo said, "Appointing Constitutional Court justices chosen by the National Assembly is not a subject of political negotiation."
A senior official at the Prime Minister's Office, however, had expressed regret over the DP's threat to impeach Han.
"I find it extremely regrettable and believe they will think it over more carefully from here on," he told reporters.