The South Korean president is resisting impeachment because he is under investigation for insurrection

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police and prosecutors launched separate insurgency investigations Thursday into President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to impose martial law in the key U.S. ally as his party said it opposed a planned vote on his Impeachment.

The timing of the vote was announced as Yoon accepted the resignation of his Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who played a key role in the chaotic six-hour martial law period that began late Tuesday local time and ended Wednesday morning.

Choi Byung-hyuk, a retired four-star army general and current South Korean ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was named Kim’s successor.

“He is a trusted member of the military and a man of principles,” Chung Jin-seok, Yoon’s chief of staff, told reporters.

Kim tendered his resignation on Wednesday, saying the responsibility for the debacle rested “with me alone.” “All actions carried out by all military soldiers in connection with the martial law state of emergency followed my orders and instructions, and therefore I bear full responsibility for them ,” he said in a statement.

He did not directly address whether emergency martial law was his idea, as opposition lawmakers and South Korean media have claimed.

The National Office of Investigation said Thursday that it had ordered a foreign travel ban on Kim, who also faces possible insurgency charges, after opposition lawmakers suggested he might try to flee the country.

Yoon’s office said Wednesday that his chief of staff and all senior presidential secretaries had also tendered their resignations. But it defended its declaration of martial law, South Korea’s first since 1980, as necessary given a standoff with opposition lawmakers that Yoon said had paralyzed the government.

The declaration of martial law banned all political activity and censored the media, sparking immediate opposition from a public that had lived under military-authoritarian rule for decades before South Korea became a vibrant democracy and the world’s 10th-largest economy.Yoon, 63, who once Serving as the country’s chief prosecutor, lifted the order after lawmakers defied a security cordon to enter the National Assembly in Seoul, the South Korean capital, where he voted unanimously to reject it. The demonstrators also arrived in front of the parliament, where there were some clashes with the security forces.

He has not appeared in public since announcing the order in a surprise late-night TV address on Tuesday.

The lifting of the order did little to dissipate public shock and anger in the country of 50 million people. On Wednesday evening, demonstrators held a candlelight vigil in downtown Seoul, marching against Yoon and calling on him to resign.

Protests continued Thursday, including a Marine veteran and his wife shaving their heads in protest outside the presidential office, a South Korean tradition. There were also some rallies by Yoon’s supporters.

Protests against Yoon and calls for his resignation could grow as people get over the initial shock of the events, said Jean H. Lee, an associate fellow and Northeast Asia expert at the East-West Center research organization in Honolulu.

“People were stunned,” she said. “But I think that leads to real disappointment and anger.”

“It’s hard for me to imagine how he can come back from this,” Lee added.

Gen. Park Ahn-soo, who was appointed martial law commander as army chief of staff, told lawmakers that he learned of the order through Yoon’s announcement on television. He said that although he signed and issued the declaration of martial law, he did not have the expertise to assess its legality and that he had suggested further review to the Minister of Defense.

“I never intended to turn arms against the people of this nation,” he said, adding that he focused on setting up the operations room and neither issued nor supervised the order to send troops to the National Assembly.

Park said he offered his resignation on Wednesday but Yoon did not accept, citing the need for stable leadership in the military.

Kim Seon-ho, the vice defense minister, said it was his boss Kim Yong-hyun who ordered the troop deployment. The deputy minister, who said he also learned about the order from the news, said he did not agree with it and expressed his objections to the mobilization of military personnel.

On Thursday, he expressed his “deep regret” to the public and said he felt “devastated.”

“As Deputy Minister of National Defense, I admit that I failed to recognize and prevent these actions as they occurred. I take full responsibility and will ensure accountability in the future,” he said, adding that the soldiers in the National Assembly did not carry live ammunition.

By ousting his defense secretary, Yoon appears to be “trying to construct a narrative that takes control away from him,” said Rob York, director of regional affairs at the Pacific Forum, a foreign policy research institute in Honolulu.

But the statement was “ultimately his decision, and the Korean public is not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt,” he said.

Yoon is already unpopular, York said – a Gallup Korea poll last week put his approval rating at 19% – “and I suspect his popularity ratings will fall even further, possibly into the single digits.”

The main opposition party, the Democratic Party, said Thursday that lawmakers would vote on the impeachment motion against Yoon around 7 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) on Saturday. It was unclear whether MPs from Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) would vote against the motion or simply not show up to vote.

A total of 191 lawmakers representing six opposition parties and one independent lawmaker filed charges against Yoon on Wednesday. A two-thirds majority in the unicameral National Assembly is required to pass the motion.

Although PPP leaders rejected Yoon’s declaration of martial law and called on him to leave the party, they said the party opposed the impeachment motion. The opposition bloc has 192 seats, just under two-thirds of the 300-member legislature, meaning the motion could fail unless several PPP MPs break with their party and support it.

Opposition MPs say that if the motion is not passed the first time, they will keep trying until Yoon is charged. If the motion is accepted, the Constitutional Court would hold a hearing to decide whether to confirm the impeachment. The decision must be made within 180 days. Although Yoon would remain at the presidential residence, his powers would be temporarily transferred to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo until the court announced its verdict.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Wednesday that Yoon “seriously misjudged” his decision to declare martial law.

He said the fact that progressives and conservatives quickly united in opposition to the order despite deep political divisions was evidence of the strength of South Korea’s democracy.

“This is a powerful symbol that people were willing to speak out and make it clear that this was a deeply illegitimate process,” he said at an event in Washington organized by the Aspen Strategy Forum, according to Reuters .

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, acknowledged that the Biden administration did not know about Yoon’s announcement in advance, but rejected the idea that it was an intelligence failure.

“We are certainly not routinely informed of every decision that a partner makes at any given time anywhere in the world,” he said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.

“It is now important that this process takes place peacefully and in accordance with the constitution and the rule of law,” he added.

Stella Kim reported from Seoul and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.