A motion for the impeachment of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok was submitted to the National Assembly on the 1st, led by the Democratic Party of Korea, and a vote is currently underway. The People Power Party has protested and refrained from voting.
The Democratic Party of Korea cited as grounds for Deputy Prime Minister Choi's impeachment that the Constitutional Court's decision not to appoint candidate Ma Eun-hyuk was deemed an illegal act infringing on the authority of the National Assembly, despite Deputy Prime Minister Choi, who was then acting president, not appointing candidate Ma.
The impeachment motion for Deputy Prime Minister Choi was proposed on March 21, led by the Democratic Party of Korea, and reported to the plenary session on the 2nd of last month, after which it was referred to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee. The committee held a hearing on the 'investigation of the impeachment case of Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok' on the 16th of last month, but the investigation report was not adopted, and the hearing was concluded.
On the same day, the Democratic Party of Korea held a full committee meeting of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee ahead of the plenary session to process the supplementary budget and presented the 'adoption of the investigation report on the impeachment case of Minister of Economy and Finance (Choi Sang-mok),' which was passed amid opposition from the People Power Party. With the adoption of the investigation report by the committee, the Democratic Party claims that Deputy Prime Minister Choi's impeachment motion can be voted on in the plenary session that day.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea also proposed an impeachment motion against Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung and reported it to the plenary session. After the Supreme Court overturned the case against Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung related to the Public Office Election Act with a guilty intent that afternoon, all 170 members of the Democratic Party participated in submitting the impeachment motion against Prosecutor General Shim.
In the impeachment motion, the Democratic Party claimed that Prosecutor General Shim participated in 'the unconstitutional and illegal declaration of emergency martial law by President Yoon Suk-yeol and the mobilization of martial law troops and police for armed rebellion' and 'caused an unnecessary extension of detention periods for a president who committed rebellion, leading to a cancellation decision from the court.'
They also noted that he 'abandoned the immediate appeal against the cancellation decision of detention and directed the release of the main suspect in the rebellion' and 'further inappropriately intervened in the investigation of those involved in the rebellion and those obstructing the rebellion investigation, deliberately evading necessary directives and supervision.'
The impeachment motion is automatically reported after being proposed at the first plenary session. Accordingly, around 9 p.m. on that day, the impeachment motion against Prosecutor General Shim was reported at a plenary session convened for the processing of the supplementary budget. The Democratic Party plans to refer the motion against Prosecutor General Shim to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee for further investigation. Consequently, the item regarding the approval of the motion to refer the impeachment of Prosecutor General Shim to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee passed with 180 votes in favor and 1 against among 181 members present. The People Power Party refrained from voting in protest of the Democratic Party's push for Prosecutor General Shim's impeachment.
An impeachment motion can be voted on or referred to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee for investigation within 24 hours after being reported to the plenary session, within 72 hours.