South Korea's president defends the declaration of temporary martial law, rejecting attempts to impeach him

South Korea's president defended his martial law decision as an executive act and denied charges of treason on Thursday, dismissing opposition-led efforts to impeach him and an investigation into last week's move.

Yoon Suk Yeol's televised statement on Thursday came hours before the main opposition Democratic Party submitted a new motion to impeach Yoon. The opposition party plans to put the proposal to the floor this Saturday.

Its previous efforts to impeach Yoon failed last Saturday, when ruling party lawmakers boycotted the vote in the National Assembly.

Yoon's announcement of Dec. 3 of martial law, the first of its kind in decades in South Korea, has sparked political uproar and protests calling for it to be lifted. The law brought hundreds of armed forces trying to surround parliament and storm the electoral commission, although no violence or serious injuries occurred. He was forced to lift it about six hours later.

“I will fight to the end, to prevent the armed forces and gangs that have been responsible for paralyzing the country's government and disrupting the country's constitutional order while threatening the future of the Republic of Korea,” said Yoon.

Yoon, a conservative, said his introduction of martial law was intended to issue a warning to the main opposition Democratic Party, which he said was paralyzing state affairs and undermining the country's constitution. He said the deployment of less than 300 soldiers to the Parliament was planned to maintain peace, not to disrupt or paralyze it.

'Knife dance of chaos'

Yoon called the Democratic Party a “beast” and “anti-state militia,” which he said has repeatedly tried to use its legislative power to criticize senior officials, undermine the government's budget bills and sympathize with North Korea.

“The opposition is now doing a chaotic knife dance, saying that the declaration of martial law constitutes an act of rebellion. But was it really?” Yoon said.

Yoon said his martial law was an act of governance that cannot be investigated, he said, and does not amount to treason.

It is unclear how Yoon's statement will affect his fate. Earlier on Thursday, the leader of his Conservative Party, Han Dong-hoon, said Yoon had made it clear that he was not willing to step down voluntarily and asked party members to vote in favor of his impeachment during the upcoming National Assembly vote.

Opposition groups and many experts said martial law was unconstitutional. The president is legally allowed to declare martial law only in times of war or similar emergencies, but they said South Korea was not in such a situation. They say deploying the military to close the National Parliament to stop its political activities is tantamount to treason because the constitution does not allow the president to use the military to stop the Parliament in any situation.

Yoon's statement appeared to echo his previous position. Last Saturday, he apologized for martial law, saying he would not avoid legal or political responsibility for it. He said he will leave it to his party to organize a structure that deals with the political turmoil in the country, including issues affecting my time in power.

On Wednesday, Yoon's office rejected the police's attempt to search the compound.

The main focus of the investigation is whether Yoon and other high-ranking military and government officials involved in the imposition of martial law committed treason, for which they face the death penalty.

Earlier this week, Yoon's former defense minister became the first to be formally arrested in connection with the decision, on suspicion of taking a major role in sedition and abuse of power.

Kim Yong-hyun, one of Yoon's close associates, is accused of recommending martial law to Yoon and sending soldiers to the National Assembly to prevent lawmakers from voting on it. Enough lawmakers finally managed to enter parliament and unanimously rejected Yoon's announcement, forcing the cabinet to remove it before dawn on December 4.