With the Constitutional Court having consecutively dismissed several impeachment cases led by the Democratic Party of Korea against top officials of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, critics have accused the opposition of abusing its dominance in parliament to impeach executive and judicial officials.
According to records from the National Assembly Secretariat submitted to the office of ruling People Power Party Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, the total cost of the impeachment trials of Yoon officials launched by the Democratic Party amounted to some 460 million won ($316,000).
The Democratic Party, holding a majority in the National Assembly, unilaterally passed 29 impeachment motions, leading to the suspension of 13 top officials. So far, none of the 29 impeachment motions has been approved by the Constitutional Court.
Jang said the Democratic Party was pushing ahead with the impeachments with little regard for their justification.
"Since the inauguration of the Yoon administration, the amount spent by the National Assembly on the impeachment trials totals 460 million. Koreans have the right to know why so much taxpayer money is being wasted on the opposition party's reckless impeachment spree," Jang said.
Lee Jin-sook, the chair of the Korea Communications Council whose impeachment was dismissed by the Constitutional Court in January, said that if the Democratic Party had to pay for failed impeachment cases, it "wouldn't pass impeachment motions so indiscriminately."
People Power Party Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon said he would propose a bill that would cut government subsidies for political parties that pass impeachment motions without bipartisan agreement and in the absence of an impeachable offense.
The Democratic Party recently said it would impeach the prosecutor general, Shim Woo-jung, if he doesn't resign over prosecution service's decision not to appeal the court ruling that released Yoon from detention on Saturday.
arin@heraldcorp.com
