Korean opposition tries to impeach president

South Korea’s two main opposition parties submitted the country’s first ever impeachment motion today in a bid to remove embattled President Roh Moo-hyun for violating election laws.

The proposal was submitted to the National Assembly with the support of both the Millennium Democratic Party and the main opposition Grand National Party, an MDP spokesman, Kim Young-chang, said.

It marked the first time since the country’s foundation in 1948 that South Korean lawmakers have tried to unseat a president through impeachment, National Assembly official Oh Se-il said.

The motion needs a simple majority of the 273-member assembly to make it to debate and a two-thirds majority to pass.

It was submitted with the support of 159 lawmakers, more than half, Kim said.

“We believe we won’t have big difficulties in passing it,” Kim said.

GNP floor leader Hong Sa-duk cautioned, however, that the motion’s fate was far from certain because there was opposition to impeachment within the parties, especially among young lawmakers.

“Even if we cannot achieve the two-third majority, we hope our action would serve as a stern warning to the president not to violate laws,” Hong said.

It was unclear when the measure would go to a vote.

Last week, the country’s election watchdog ruled that Roh violated election rules with comments that could unfairly influence next month’s parliamentary poll, although it found Roh’s infraction not serious enough for criminal charges and simply urged him to refrain from repeating such remarks.

Roh had responded to a journalist’s question last month by calling for “overwhelming support” for the minor Uri Party, which backs the president.