“FIGHT TO THE END”
The prosecution activity was carried as at least 12 members of Yoon’s People Power Party joined the opposition parties, which control 192 votes in the 300-member regional council, clearing the two-thirds level needed.
The number of lawmakers supporting impeachment was 204, with 85 against, three abstentions and eight invalid ballots.
The ruling party’s chief executive Han Dong-hoon has resisted calls to resign after calling for impeachment as “inevitable normalization” as a result of the political crisis.
Yoon shocked the country on December 3 by granting the military sweeping emergency powers to defeat what he termed “anti-state forces” and defeat obstructionist political opponents.
After parliament defied the troops and police to reject the decree, he quickly withdrawn it six hours later. However, it caused the nation to go into a constitutional crisis and sparked widespread appeals for him to resign on the grounds that he had broken the law.
Yoon later apologised, but defended his choice, and he turned down calls for resignation.
Opposition parties launched the fresh impeachment vote, supported by large demonstrations.
Yoon is also facing a criminal investigation for allegedly inciting protests against the martial law declaration, and he has been prohibited from traveling abroad.
Yoon vowed to “fight to the end,” defending his martial law decree as needed to break political deadlock and shielding the nation from foreign politicians who he claimed were undermining democracy in yet another defiant speech on Thursday.