South Korea: President faces impeachment vote
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
South Korean MPs have begun impeachment proceeding against President Yoon Suk Yeol after thwarting his shock move to impose martial law. Protesters in Seoul have marched on the presidential offices and parliament demanding his resignation or impeachment. We hear from one of the protesters, and lawmakers from the opposition and the president’s own party.
Also in the programme: Iran temporarily releases the Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi from prison on medical grounds, and the reigning queen of the catwalk show, Anna Wintour, on changing shape of fashion.
(Image: Protesters hold placards as they march toward the presidential office during a demonstration calling for the dismissal and impeachment of South Korean president in Seoul. Credit: JEON HEON-KYUN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.8 | We're coming to you live from London. I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:10.1 | It has been a whirlwind 24 hours in South Korea. |
| 0:14.0 | The country's been plunged into a profound political crisis that seems to have caught everyone by surprise. |
| 0:19.8 | And all this next door to nuclear |
| 0:22.1 | armed and unpredictable North Korea. It all began with a shock declaration of martial law |
| 0:28.4 | by President Yun-sung-Yul, ostensibly because of the threat from the North and what he called |
| 0:33.9 | anti-state forces. Well, that quickly brought protesters onto the streets |
| 0:38.4 | outside the country's National Assembly in the capital Seoul. |
| 0:46.2 | And it also provoked a scramble, literally in some cases, by lawmakers, |
| 0:56.9 | trying to get around or over the barricades and into the Parliament building so they could vote in the early hours of this morning on a measure |
| 1:01.9 | to overturn the President's decree. |
| 1:13.8 | And that was the moment. |
| 1:24.5 | One member of the opposition, a spokeswoman, Anne Guirion, was caught on camera trying to wrestle a gun, away from one of the soldiers guarding the assembly building. |
| 1:28.9 | Well, within hours of his initial announcement, the president had backed down. Following the National Assembly's demand to lift martial law, troops have been withdrawn. |
| 1:38.8 | I will accept the National Assembly's demand and lift martial law through a cabinet meeting. |
| 1:46.2 | Well, opposition lawmakers who are in the majority in Parliament are now demanding President |
| 1:50.9 | Yun's step down. If he doesn't, they'll try to impeach him. And protesters have once again |
| 1:57.3 | been gathering outside also to demand his resignation. |
| 2:04.1 | The President's Defence Minister, along with other senior aides, |
| 2:06.6 | have also offered their resignations. |
| 2:11.4 | Well, Kim Gunn is a member of the President's People Power Party in the National Assembly. |
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