
The bill for investigating President Yoon Suk Yeol has been put up for renegotiation by rival parties following a backlash over claims by the Democratic Party of Korea that Yoon committed treason by trying to provoke a war with North Korea.
Bipartisan consensus on opening an independent investigation into the martial law debacle fell apart this week, as the ruling People Power Party protested the Democratic Party’s version of the bill that included accusations of provocations against the North.
In a rare U-turn, the Democratic Party said Thursday it would be open to discussing the bill with the People Power Party before it is put to vote at the National Assembly plenary session, which was postponed a day to Friday.
Rep. Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party floor leader, took a more open stance on the ruling party’s proposals regarding the bill, telling reporters, “We will see what comes out of the negotiation.”
Park and his ruling party counterpart, Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, are due to meet on Friday for a final negotiation.
The Democratic Party unilaterally passed its version of the bill at the judiciary committee last week, with the People Power Party slated to submit its bill minus treason accusations.
The flexible tone adopted by the Democratic Party appears to be motivated by internal calculations that the accusation concerning North Korea, a particularly divisive point of contention in the country, could risk losing public support.
One source close to Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party chair, told The Korea Herald that more within the party seemed to be growing conscious of the party’s falling ratings following a series of controversial moves taken by the party including the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo less than two weeks after impeaching Yoon.
Whether Yoon’s alleged decision to provoke North Korea actually constitute treason is also a question, according to a former legal adviser to the Democratic Party. He told The Korea Herald that for Yoon to have committed treason, he would have had to either aided or connived with an enemy, in this case, North Korea, which is unlikely to be the case.
“If you look at the Criminal Code, treason is when you benefit or work with a foreign government. Saying Yoon or our military catered to North Korea is a stretch, to say the least,” the former legal adviser said.
In a bill submitted last week, the Democratic Party claimed the Yoon administration played anti-Kim Jong-un regime broadcasts from loudspeakers installed along the inter-Korean border with the aim of “inducing or attempting to induce a war or an armed conflict by trying to get North Korea to retaliate.”
The border broadcasts are a longtime psychological warfare tactic used by the South Korean military toward North Korea, which resumed in June last year in response to Pyongyang’s launches of trash-carrying balloons.
In the bill, the Democratic Party also raised fresh allegations that Yoon sent uncrewed aerial vehicles into Pyongyang and orchestrated anti-Kim Jong-un propaganda leafleting across the border for the same purpose. The Ministry of National Defense has denied both of these accusations.
“President Yoon attempted to wage a war by provoking an armed clash with North Korea, for the purpose of jeopardizing the existence and security of South Korea,” the Democratic Party wrote in the bill.
Rep. Kwon Young-se, the People Power Party interim chair, said at a meeting of party lawmakers Thursday that the Democratic Party was trying to punish the South Korean military for its regular operations while backing North Korea’s claims that the Yoon administration was behind the drones that flew over Pyongyang skies in October last year.
“It is hard to fathom why the Democratic Party is so invested in replaying the accusations that the Kim Jong-un regime is raising against our military,” Kwon said. “The accusations of warmongering that are simply not grounded in facts.”
Kwon called on the Democratic Party to come to the negotiation table to reshape the bill to exclude portions that “criminalize operations of our armed forces and our administration’s policies.”
Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the People Power Party floor leader, met with the ruling party’s lawmakers on the martial law investigation committee to talk over strategies to get the opposition to revise the bill.
The accusations of treason are “a continuation of the Democratic Party’s attacks on the Yoon administration’s North Korea and national security policies,” Rep. Im Jong-deuk, one of the ruling party lawmakers on the committee.
The Democratic Party had to retract the initial impeachment bill after criticism over the parts problematizing Yoon’s three-way cooperation with the US and Japan against Russia and China.
“The Democratic Party keeps trying to slide its foreign policy views and ideas into the martial law situation when they do not belong on the same page,” Im told The Korea Herald.