South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office on Monday refused to dismiss Interior and Security Minister Lee Sang Min despite the impeachment motion against him and said his possible departure will only take place when the investigation into the Itaewon human avalanche is completed.
«There is no change in our current position that the issue of dismissal is something to be decided after the truth is clearly determined,» deputy presidential spokesman Lee Jae Myoung said during a press conference, Yonhap news agency reported.
This comes after the South Korean National Assembly, where the opposition has greater weight, approved on Sunday a motion to dismiss the Minister of Interior and Security for the government’s failed response to the Itaewon tragedy, which killed at least 158 people.
The motion, approved on Thursday by the Democratic Party (DP), passed with 182 votes in favor and one invalid vote. Members of the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) left the room before the voting process, which needed to garner at least 150 supporters, began.
It was the second motion passed by the Assembly to dismiss a member of Yoon’s Cabinet. In September, the same party filed an impeachment motion against Foreign Minister Park Jin over a controversy about the president’s trips to the United Kingdom and the United States, but Yoon rejected it.
