South Korea’s Parliament on Wednesday passed an impeachment motion to remove Interior Minister Lee Sang Min from office over the government’s failed response to the human avalanche during a Halloween celebration in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood, in which more than 150 people were killed.
The vote resulted in 179 votes in favor and 109 against, with another nine considered invalid, which forces Lee’s suspension until the Constitutional Court, which will have the last word, decides whether to endorse the impeachment, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Thus, the decision of the court, which has 180 days to rule on the case, will determine whether Lee is restored to office or finally dismissed, after the main opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP), and two other parties filed the motion this week to hold the government accountable for the tragedy.
In fact, the South Korean National Assembly passed a motion in December to dismiss Lee, after the DP requested it, although the motion was not binding, so the Presidency said then that this measure should be taken after investigations into the incident and refused to dismiss the Interior Minister.
Today’s vote marks the first time that the South Korean Parliament has approved the impeachment of a minister. In the past, such measures against then presidents Roh Moo Hyun and Park Geun Hye were approved in 2004 and 2016, respectively. The Constitutional Court rejected the impeachment of Roh, but approved the impeachment of Park, who had to leave office.
Police completed in mid-January an investigation into the crowded crowd in the Itaewon neighborhood, concluding that this disaster was caused «by the inability of the authorities.» Thus, it said that the district office, the Police or the Fire Brigade did not take any proper emergency rescue or disaster control action.
However, he stressed after closing the investigations that he would not press charges against officials of the Ministry of Interior, the Seoul City Hall or the Police for the Itaweon tragedy as he considered that these agencies are not legally responsible for large-scale crowd control tasks.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
