South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday boycotted the formal opening of parliament as his squabbles with the opposition deepen over allegations of wrongdoing by top officials and his wife.
It is a tradition for South Korean presidents to deliver a speech at opening ceremonies for National Assembly sessions, and Yoon is the first to skip the event since the nation’s transition from a military dictatorship to democracy in the late 1980s.
Yoon, a conservative who narrowly won election in 2022, has struggled to navigate a parliament controlled by liberals who have stymied his agenda, and called for investigations into allegations of corruption and abuse of power involving his wife and government officials.
Photo:AP
Yoon also faces declining approval ratings, as concerns grow over his government’s ability to deal with a worsening job market, soaring household debt and a prolonged strike by thousands of doctors that is straining medical services.
Asked about his decision to skip the legislature’s opening ceremony, Yoon’s office said lawmakers must first “normalize the National Assembly, which overissues demands for special prosecutor investigations and impeachments,” before inviting Yoon.
Jo Seoung-lae, spokesperson of the main opposition Democratic Party, said Yoon’s refusal to attend the ceremony displayed his “arrogance” and disregard for the assembly’s role to check and balance the executive branch.
“It’s impossible to produce results in national governance without having respect for the National Assembly,” Speaker Woo Won-shik said during the opening ceremony as he lamented Yoon’s absence.
Following parliamentary elections in April in which the liberals extended their majority, the current assembly began meeting in May. However, its official opening ceremony was delayed for months because of political bickering.
Opposition lawmakers are pushing for an investigation by special prosecutors into allegations that top government and military officials tried to cover up the circumstances surrounding the death of a marine who drowned during a search for flood victims in 2023.
They want another independent investigation into allegations that Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, was involved in stock price manipulation and other wrongdoing. Yoon has denied the accusations.
Yoon’s office, which rejected a previous bill calling for special prosecutors to investigate the marine’s death, described the allegations as groundless and politically motivated.
Yoon and his party also criticized the opposition’s move to hold a parliamentary hearing last month to address online petitions signed by tens of thousands calling for his impeachment.
South Korea’s Constitution limits a president to a single five-year term, so Yoon cannot seek re-election.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS