Seoul, Dec. 11 (Yonhap) — The National Assembly controlled by the Democratic Party (DP), the main opposition party, passed a motion on Sunday calling for the sacking of Interior and Security Minister Lee Sang-min., for insufficient response of government to stampede in Seoul Itaewon District on 29 October.
The motion was supported by 182 of the 183 MPs who voted. A ballot has been declared invalid. Members of the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP), which opposes the motion, boycotted the vote and left the room before voting began.
The motion, presented last week by the Democratic Party, was presented to the National Assembly last Thursday. The vote must take place within 72 hours of the presentation of a motion in the plenary session, according to the law on the National Assembly.
Lee is currently facing pressure. The opposition wants him to leave his post as interior minister, in charge of overseeing police and emergency management agencies, to take responsibility for the tragedy that killed at least 158 people during the Halloween celebrations in Itaewon.
The motion requires the consent of at least 150 deputies and the PD occupies 169 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly.
Although the motion passed in parliament, President Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to reject it. The PD threatens to dismiss the minister if Yoon rejects this motion of no confidence.
This is the second motion to dismiss that parliament has passed against a member of Yoon’s cabinet. At the end of September, the Democratic Party presented a motion of no confidence in view of the resignation of Foreign Minister Park Jin following a series of incidents that occurred during the president’s trips to Great Britain and the United States. Yoon had rejected the motion at the time.
A presidential office official told Yonhap News Agency that the office had no particular “position” in response to passing the motion, a reaction widely seen as a rejection.
The official said there had been no change in Yoon’s position that the no-confidence motion goes against the government’s current efforts to shed light on the fatal crash.
It usually takes a day for a motion of no confidence passed by parliament to reach the president’s office. Yoon is expected to announce the rejection of the motion after being officially notified that it has passed.
