S. Korea's ruling party chief vows to block Yoon's impeachment motion

Han Dong-hoon, chief of South Korea's ruling People Power Party, on Thursday vowed to block a motion to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol, driven by the opposition parties.

Han said at the party's supreme council meeting that he would make efforts to block the motion from being passed in the parliament in a bid to protect people and supporters from damage, caused by the unprepared impeachment.

The parliament is set to convene a vote on the impeachment motion on Saturday, reported Yonhap news agency.

The party chair stressed that he was never trying to defend Yoon's unconstitutional martial law declaration, noting that the president and others involved in making people anxious and damaged by the unconstitutional martial law should be brought to a strict account.

As to his meeting with President Yoon the previous day, Han said the president passed the buck to the "tyranny" of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party for the martial law declaration, noting that he felt hard to sympathize with the president's perception.

Han added that the Democratic Party's tyranny could not justify the unconstitutional and illegal martial law order, asking Yoon again to defect from the conservative party.

The Democratic Party and five other minor parties submitted the impeachment motion against Yoon on Wednesday.

Yoon declared an emergency martial law Tuesday night before repealing it early Wednesday as the parliament voted against it.