National Assembly rejects impeachment motion for justice minister

All News 18:05 July 23, 2020

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's National Assembly on Thursday voted down the impeachment motion for Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae.

The motion was submitted earlier this week by a group of 110 lawmakers led by the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), which alleged that Choo abused her power and violated the Prosecutors' Office Act.

The minister has become a political target of opposition parties after she publicly displayed friction with Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and used her authority to press him to stay away from an investigation involving Yoon's key aide.

Of the 292 lawmakers who were present in the full floor session of the National Assembly, 179 cast unsigned ballots to vote down the motion while 109 voted for it. Four votes were counted as invalid.

Prior to the plenary session, Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), implored the party's lawmakers to cast ballots to reject it.

"It is a political offensive (by the opposition parties) to sabotage the reform of the prosecution," he argued, urging fellow lawmakers to make a "stern judgment" on the move by forming a united front against it.

On the other hand, Joo Ho-young, Kim's counterpart at the UFP, argued that Choo represented "the hypocrisy of the (Moon) government" and stressed the need to impeach the minister.

It is rare for an impeachment motion for a high-ranking official to be put to a vote in a plenary session, except for a handful of cases involving former presidents. Most of the similar moves were cut short before reaching the plenary session.

Hong Jung-min, a DP spokeswoman, told reporters that her party has set a policy on such a motion to put it up for voting, according to the principles of the National Assembly Act.