South Korea's impeachment vote fails as ruling party walks out

South Korea's parliament on Saturday failed to pass President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment motion, as most of the ruling People Power Party lawmakers refused to vote on it.

After voting against a bill to investigate scandals involving Yoon's wife, most of the 108 ruling party lawmakers left the parliament hall.

One ruling party lawmaker remained in the hall, and two returned after leaving.

Of the 300 National Assembly lawmakers, 198 voted for the bill on the special prosecutor investigation of the first lady, with 102 against it. At least two-thirds of the lawmakers need to vote in favor for the bill to pass in a revote.

Lawmakers from opposition parties, including the liberal Democratic Party, named the ruling party lawmakers one by one in unison, calling on them to return and cast their ballots.

More than 200 lawmakers are required to vote in favor of the impeachment motion for it to pass.

National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik ended the voting process about three hours after waiting for the ruling party lawmakers, announcing that the impeachment motion was scrapped due to a lack of quorum.

Outside the parliament building, hundreds of thousands of civilians held a candlelight rally demanding a vote on Yoon's impeachment.

The Democratic Party and five other minor parties submitted the impeachment motion over the president's martial law declaration on Wednesday.

Yoon declared an emergency martial law on Tuesday night before repealing it early on Wednesday, after the parliament voted against it. The revocation was approved at a cabinet meeting.

According to the proposed motion, the declaration can only be made when the country faces a "state of war, serious incident or other comparable national emergency" that leads to engagement with the enemy or extreme disturbance of social order.

The opposition noted that no signs of a national emergency were detected at the time of Yoon's declaration, denouncing him for not notifying the National Assembly of the martial law imposition, which violates both the constitution and the martial law.

The opposition claimed in the motion that Yoon attempted treason by instructing the defense minister to illegally mobilize troops and paralyze the parliament in order to evade public calls to investigate and punish himself and his wife for criminal acts.

According to a survey of 504 voters conducted on Wednesday by the local pollster Realmeter, 73.6 percent were in favor of Yoon's impeachment, while 24 percent were against it.

Even in North Gyeongsang rovince and the city of Daegu, regarded as a traditional stronghold for the conservative bloc, 66.2 percent agreed with the impeachment.

Of those who termed Yoon's martial law declaration as insurrection, 69.5 percent supported the impeachment, while 24.9 percent disagreed.

Yoon has struggled with scandals involving his wife, Kim Keon-hee, both during the presidential campaign and since he took office in May 2022.

Kim was suspected of being involved in stock price manipulation to gain illicit profits, while also allegedly interfering in candidate nominations for the 2022 by-elections and the 2024 parliamentary elections, as well as manipulating public opinion during the 2022 presidential election.

According to a Gallup Korea poll, Yoon's approval rating dropped by 3 percentage points from a week earlier to 16 percent this week, marking the lowest approval rating since he took office in May 2022.