The Ministry of Justice of South Korea today, Monday, imposed a ban on the president, Yoon Suk-yeol, from leaving the country while he is being investigated for treason and other charges after declaring martial law last week.
The Office for Corruption Investigations of High-ranking Officials (CIO for its acronym in English) today requested the measure to the Ministry of Justice According to its top official, Oh Dong-hoon before the National Assembly (Parliament).
The South Korean police and prosecutor’s office are investigating Yoon as suspected of committing treason, mutiny and abuse of power, charges that also weigh on several senior government and military officials involved in the controversial measure, apparently decreed with motivations purely linked to the political survival of the president and the protection of the first lady, against whom accusations of corruption weigh.
The CIO, a body created specifically in 2021 to ensure a more impartial investigation of senior public officials, has in turn asked police and prosecutors to transfer the case to it.
After the failed motion of censure to dismiss the head of state last Saturday, his party, the conservative People Power Party (PPP), indicated that it intends to have Yoon leave his duties as president “in an early and orderly manner,” and that in the meantime he will “stop assuming his duties in state affairs, including diplomacy” in favor of Prime Minister Han Duck. -soo.
The main opposition bloc, the liberal Democratic Party (PD), has criticized the PPP plan, which apparently seeks to minimize as much as possible the damage that the martial law declared by Yoon has inflicted on voters, as unconstitutional and plans present another motion in Parliament on Wednesday to try to disqualify the president.
The DP, which secured the support of only three PPP MPs on Saturday, needs eight votes from the ruling party to achieve the two-thirds majority needed in the chamber to remove Yoon.