South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has vowed to “never give up” after the country’s national assembly voted to impeach him on Saturday.
Describing his impeachment as a “temporary pause”, Yoon, who launched a failed attempt to impose military rule on Asia’s fourth-largest economy last week, said in a televised address that he was “frustrated thinking that all my efforts [as president] might have been in vain”.
“Though I am pausing for now, the journey towards the future that I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years must never stop,” he added.
Yoon’s remarks came after the national assembly voted for his impeachment by a margin of 204 to 85.
The vote means that Yoon will be suspended from his duties and his constitutional authority passed to prime minister Han Duck-soo on an interim basis while the country’s constitutional court deliberates on whether to approve Yoon’s removal as head of state.
The constitutional court is supposed to reach a verdict within six months of the parliamentary vote, but this time limit is not binding. If Yoon is removed from office, a presidential election must be held within 60 days.
“My heart is very heavy,” Han told reporters after the vote as he promised to do his best to deliver a period of stable government.
Opposition parties, which hold a combined 192 seats in the 300-seat legislature, only needed the support of eight out of 108 lawmakers from the president’s People Power party (PPP) to secure the required two-thirds majority.
Yoon survived an impeachment motion last Saturday after lawmakers from the conservative PPP boycotted the vote. But the mood in the party started to shift against him on Thursday after a speech during which the president lashed out at critics and vowed to “fight to the end”.
While the official policy of the PPP remained