South Korea’s Yoon vows to fight ‘until the very last minute’ amid new impeachment vote

The president also defended his martial law declaration as multiple ruling party lawmakers backed Yoon’s impeachment

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South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol delivers an address at the presidential office in Seoul on Thursday. Photo: South Korean presidential office via Reuters

Published: 9:08am, 12 Dec 2024Updated: 5:20pm, 12 Dec 2024

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday vowed to fight “until the very last minute”, in a defiant address defending his shock decision to declare martial law and deploy troops to the country’s parliament last week.

The South Korean leader is barred from foreign travel as part of a probe into his inner circle over the dramatic events of December 3-4 that stunned Seoul’s allies and threw it into some of its deepest political turmoil in years.

Now staring down an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday, Yoon vowed to “fight with the people until the very last minute”.

“I apologise again to the people who must have been surprised and anxious due to the martial law,” he said in a televised address.

“Please trust me in my warm loyalty to the people.”

Yoon argued that the exercise of the president’s power to declare emergency martial law was “not subject to judicial review like the exercise of the power of amnesty and the exercise of foreign affairs”.

But he said he would “not avoid legal and political responsibility regarding the declaration of martial law”.