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From left: Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Education Minister Lee Ju-ho walk along the aisle after Han presided over a meeting with the Cabinet members Wednesday morning at the Government Complex Seoul. (Yonhap) |
President Yoon Suk Yeol's entire Cabinet and all of his aides offered to step down from their posts in the aftermath of the six-hour fiasco triggered by Yoon's surprise declaration of martial law Tuesday night.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo discussed the matter with leaders of the ruling People Power Party and Yoon's aides at an emergency meeting held at 2 p.m. at the Prime Minister's office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The closed-door meeting lasted for approximately an hour and a half.
Attending the meeting were Han, Minister of Government Policy Coordination Bang Ki-sun, People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon and his chief secretary Rep. Park Jeong-ha, as well as Yoon's Chief of Staff Chung Jin-suk and Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Hong Chul-ho.
Prime Minister Han and People Power Party leader Han went to the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul at around 5 p.m.
Neither the Prime Minister's Office, the ruling party nor the presidential office had made an announcement regarding the outcome of the meeting, as of press time.
This followed Yoon's declaration of martial law Tuesday in an apparent bid to neutralize the opposition-controlled National Assembly through military intervention. Yoon technically has the constitutional power to dissolve the National Assembly and restrict citizens' rights of assembly, association and publication in cases of armed conflict or other national emergencies.
But Yoon declared an end to martial law six hours later, following parliament's unanimous decision to nullify his decree through a unanimous vote by the 190 out of 300 lawmakers present at the Assembly.
In response, all of Yoon's aides, including Chief of Staff Chung, Director of National Policy Sung Tae-yoon and National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik, as well as 11 senior secretaries, offered to resign from their posts, according to the presidential office Wednesday morning. Their decision came after Chung presided over a closed-door meeting of senior secretaries.
This marked the second time Yoon's aides offered to resign, the first being after the ruling bloc's crushing defeat in the April general election. At the time, Yoon replaced a few of them -- then-Chief of Staff Lee Kwan-sup and then-senior secretary for political affairs Han O-sub.
At a separate meeting hosted by Prime Minister Han at 11 a.m., all members of the Cabinet, including 18 government ministers, offered to step down from their posts.
