South Korea: National Assembly passes impeachment motions against chief auditor, prosecutors

Seoul  (The Uttam Hindu): South Korean opposition-controlled National Assembly on Thursday passed impeachment motions against the chief state auditor and three top prosecutors over their roles in investigations related to the relocation of the presidential office and First Lady Kim Keon Hee. The impeachment motions were against Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) Chair Choe Jae-hae; Lee Chang-soo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office; and Cho Sang-won and Choi Jae-hun, both prosecutors under Lee, Yonhap news agency reported.With the motions' passage, all four will be suspended from their duties until the Constitutional Court rules on whether to uphold their impeachment. It is the first time a BAI chief has been impeached by parliament.

The motions passed 188-4 against Choe, 185-3 against Lee, 187-4 against Cho and 186-4 against Choi. Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote. Choe is accused by the opposition of conducting a poor review of alleged irregularities surrounding the 2022 relocation of the presidential office, which took place in line with a campaign pledge of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The three prosecutors, meanwhile, are accused of failing to indict the first lady following an investigation into her alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme.

The impeachment motions were originally scheduled to be put to a vote on Wednesday, but the proceeding was postponed in the wake of Yoon's short-lived declaration of martial law. The main opposition Democratic Party said it would put off the impeachments of the state auditor and the prosecutors to concentrate on passing an impeachment motion against Yoon over his martial law decree but reversed its stance Thursday after the PPP adopted opposing Yoon's impeachment as its official party line.