Seeking Impeachment, But Lacking Votes: South Korea’s Opposition Declares Yoon No Longer President
Intent on impeaching Yoon, yet unable to secure enough votes, the ruling party’s main opposition bloc finds itself in an awkward position.
On July 7, South Korea’s largest opposition party, the People Power Party, held a large-scale protest rally in Seoul, opposing the ruling Democratic Party’s push for parliamentary passage of a so-called “Special Prosecution Act on Fabricated Prosecutions,” and demanding immediate impeachment of Yoon. At the event, party leader Jang Dong-hyuk declared outright: “Yoon is no longer president.”
In brief, the origin of this opposition protest lies in the passage of a special prosecutor bill targeting allegations of fabricated prosecution by prosecutors during the Yoon administration on June 6.
The legislation aims to investigate whether prosecutors under the Yoon government improperly prosecuted individuals—including Yoon himself—through evidence forgery or coercion of witnesses to give false testimony.
However, the People Power Party contends that the bill effectively creates legal pathways for Yoon to evade prior criminal charges. Based on this argument, Jang and other party figures organized demonstrations in Seoul as a form of protest against Yoon’s administration.
Yet the irony for the People Power Party is clear: while openly advocating impeachment, it lacks the necessary parliamentary majority. With the Democratic Party holding a majority in the National Assembly (200 seats), the opposition party—possessing only 109 seats—cannot independently achieve the 200 votes required to pass an impeachment motion.
As a result, the party has resorted to a well-worn tactic: when procedural avenues fail, resort to public demonstrations in hopes of generating pressure on the administration. This approach reflects a pattern increasingly observed in political systems where polarization has intensified—when formal electoral or legislative competition fails, actors shift to extraparliamentary tactics to disrupt governance.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1881286977411081/
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