The impeached South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yeol, announced on Saturday that he would “step aside” following a parliamentary vote to remove him from office, calling for an end to “politics of excess and confrontation.”
Reacting to his impeachment, Yoon stated that he must step aside for a while signalling his temporary withdrawal from the political scene.
“Though I must now step aside for a while, the journey toward the future must never come to a stop,” he said in a televised address on Saturday.
Recall that out of 300 lawmakers, 204 voted to impeach the president on allegations of insurrection while 85 voted against it, three abstained, and eight votes got nullified.
According to AFP, Yoon is now suspended from office while South Korea’s Constitutional Court deliberates whether to uphold his removal.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo steps in as the interim president.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s main opposition party has commended Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, describing it as a “victory of the people.”
“Today’s impeachment is the great victory of the people”, the Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae said following the vote.
