The National Assembly on Friday voted to pass the impeachment bill against Lee Jin-sook, the contested chair of South Korea’s top broadcasting regulator, the Korea Communications Commission. The bill passed just two days after President Yoon Suk Yeol confirmed her nomination.
The lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party walked out of the session to boycott the bill led by the Democratic Party of Korea and minor opposition parties, whose seats take up a majority in the Assembly.
The bill’s passage suspends Lee, whose term began Wednesday, from office until the Constitutional Court makes the final call on her impeachment. As a result, the KCC’s decision-making process has ground to a halt.
Yoon’s office on Friday denounced the move, comparing the opposition-led bill to impeach the freshly appointed head of the KCC to North Korea sending balloons filled with trash to the South.
“What difference is there between North Korea sending trash balloons and the opposition passing trash impeachment bills,” Jeong Hey-jeon, a spokesperson for the president, told reporters.
“The opposition is running amok with their bills to impeach one official after another,” she said, pointing out that the Democratic Party has tabled seven impeachment bills in the last two months alone.
“It is hard to fathom what Lee as the chair of the KCC could have done to deserve being impeached over the little time she was in office,” she also said.
She added that the opposition unilaterally passing the bill once again was “anti-Constitutional” and “anti-rule of law.”
The opposition claims Lee’s appointment is a part of the president’s move to shape the media bias in favor of the administration based on what it has called her conservative background.
