No impeachment vote Friday

The opposition coalition Thursday failed to submit a motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye, which effectively killed chances of the impeachment ballot taking place at the parliament’s plenary session Friday. 

The failure came as two of the three parties -- the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and the runner-up opposition People’s Party -- clashed over the timing of the vote, with the former insisting on immediate action and the latter calling for more time to secure enough votes. Along with the far-left Justice Party, they had earlier agreed to push for the impeachment vote as early as Friday and no later than next Friday.

Without the support of the 38 lawmakers of the People’s Party, the measure can neither be proposed nor passed.

“Our goal is to impeach President Park, not to propose a parliamentary motion,” said Rep. Lee Yong-ho, floor spokesperson of the People’s Party. “If we fail to impeach the president, it would be like exonerating her. We will not join such move.”

More than 150 lawmakers are needed to submit the impeachment motion to the floor. The Democratic Party, minor Justice Party and independents have a combined total of 134 seats, 17 shy of the required quorum in the 300-member National Assembly.

While Democratic Party lawmakers insisted that the measure should be proposed as scheduled on Thursday, The People’s Party leadership countered that the motion is unlikely to clear the legislative hurdle without support from Saenuri lawmakers. More than 28 votes from Saenuri lawmakers are needed for approval.

On Thursday, the Democratic Party and minor Justice Party officially decided to push for holding a vote Friday, mounting pressure on the People’s Party to join them. The centrist party’s interim leader Rep. Park-jie-won, however, refused to do so. 

Temporarily suspending the impeachment negotiation, Park’ governing Saenuri Party shifted their focus to offering Park a legal pathway to resign with a “sense of grace,” rather than be stripped of power through an impeachment.

“If a student wants to leave the school voluntarily, we don’t have to kick her out,” said Saenuri floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk, suggesting that allowing Park to step down by herself is better than removing her from office through impeachment.

In a presidential address Tuesday, Park said she would leave everything to the National Assembly, including her presidency, and asked the legislative body to decide the time frame and legal process for her early departure from office. Her term finishes in February 2018.

Competing factions of Saenuri lawmakers Thursday agreed to set up a roadmap for Park’s early resignation. The plan requires the president to step down next April and a presidential election to be held two months later. The election is scheduled to take place next December.

Whether Saenuri impeachment supporters will change their mind remains unclear. Some reiterated that they would pursue an impeachment process if the lawmakers fail to come up with a bipartisan proposal, but others hinted at withdrawing their support for the measure.  

“If the president can leave the office next April, we don’t have to push for impeaching her,” Rep. Kim Moo-sung told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Democratic Party leader Rep. Choo Mi-ae. Kim served as a Saenuri leader and has led efforts to impeach Park.

During the one-on-one meeting, Kim asked Choo to give the president some time and work on getting her to resign this April. Choo, however, rejected the offer, saying that the president must leave office no later than this January.

The surprise meeting drew criticism from the People’s Party, who was neither invited nor notified of it. Interim Leader Park attacked Choo for causing a chasm within their coalition by discussing the idea of allowing Park to avoid impeachment.

By Yeo Jun-suk(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)