On Friday, a majority of the South Korean parliament decided to remove interim President Han Duck-soo from office.
Since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached on December 14 for imposing martial law for a brief period of time on December 3 and having his presidential powers suspended, Prime Minister Han has served as acting president.
According to South Korean legislation, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is next in line to take over as acting president following Han’s impeachment.
Out of the 300 members of the parliament, about 192 MPs voted to remove Han from office.
After Han failed to promptly designate three justices to replace vacancies at the Constitutional Court, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), which controls parliament, made the decision to impeach him.
Three nominees were endorsed by the DP-controlled parliament on Thursday, but Han stated that he would not legally appoint them until there was bipartisan consensus.
Whether a two-thirds vote or a simple majority is required to remove the acting president has been a point of contention among constitutional scholars and the ruling and opposition parties.
Woo Won-shik, the DP’s speaker of parliament, asserted that Han could be removed with a simple majority.
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