Opposition parties unilaterally passed the bill during a subcommittee meeting of the National Assembly’s legislation and judiciary committee. Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote in protest of the bill.

The new version proposes that the Supreme Court’s chief justice recommend a special counsel to look into Yoon’s insurrection charges in an apparent effort to secure more defection votes from the PPP.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also excludes a clause that allows opposition parties to request a new recommendation in the event the proposed candidate is deemed unfit.

Instead, the revised bill expands the scope of the investigation to include fresh allegations of “treason” committed by Yoon against his own country. The DPK claims Yoon attempted to provoke military attacks from North Korea to justify his plans for martial law declaration.

“It is difficult to say that the overall arrangement, plan and implementation process of the insurrection have been fully revealed,” DPK Rep. Park Beom-kye, the subcommittee chair, said.

Park stressed that the special counsel should investigate the insurrection more broadly than previously investigated by the prosecution, police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.

To address concerns about the potential leakage of military information, searches and seizures will be allowed but details will be prohibited from being disclosed during press briefings.

The number of prosecutors and investigators dispatched will also be reduced from 205 to 155, and the investigation period has been shortened from 170 days to 150 days.

The previous bill, which proposed special counsel recommendations from the DPK and the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, was scrapped Wednesday after being voted down by just two votes.

When the new bill passes the plenary session of the legislation and judiciary committee Monday, it is expected to advance to a full floor vote next week. (Yonhap)

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Han’s dismissal comes less than two weeks after he assumed the acting presidency following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment by the Assembly on Dec. 14 for his botched martial law imposition. This marks the first time in Korean history that both the president and prime minister — the top two figures in the government hierarchy — have been simultaneously suspended from their duties.

The impeachment motion against Han, submitted by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Thursday, was approved in a plenary session with 192 of the 300-seat Assembly voting in favor.

While the vote was unanimous, it appeared to be railroaded by opposition lawmakers, as the broader opposition bloc holds all 192 seats, while the ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the vote.

The PPP, which holds the remaining 108 seats, did not participate in the vote, protesting against the Assembly speaker’s decision regarding the quorum requirement of 151 votes. The rival parties had been at odds over the required voting threshold for the acting president’s impeachment.

Under the Constitution, the passage of an impeachment motion against the prime minister requires a majority of the 300-seat Assembly, or 151 votes. Impeaching a president, however, requires the approval of at least two-thirds of the total Assembly members, or 200 votes in favor.

The DPK argued that Han, who is technically serving as prime minister, falls under the majority-vote requirement, while the PPP contended that Han should be treated as a president.

Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik determined that Han’s impeachment requires 151 ballots.

“This is an impeachment motion against Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. In accordance with Article 65 Clause 2 of the Constitution, it will be approved by a majority of total members. While there are differing views on the quorum, the subject of this impeachment motion is the prime minister, who is temporarily exercising presidential power,” Woo said before the voting.

PPP members strongly protested, chanting slogans such as “the speaker should resign,” and “abuse of power.” They left the Chamber as the vote count began.

Following the passage of the impeachment motion, the Constitutional Court has 180 days to decide whether to uphold Han’s impeachment. In the meantime, Han’s duties will be suspended, and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, who also serves as minister of economy and finance, will assume interim leadership.

“I respect the decision of the National Assembly, and in order to prevent further confusion and uncertainties, my duties will be suspended in accordance with relevant laws, while I will wait for the swift and wise decision of the Constitutional Court,” Han said in a statement, shortly after his impeachment motion was passed.

The DPK filed the impeachment motion, Thursday, shortly after Han delayed the appointment of three Constitutional Court justice nominees who had won parliamentary approval.

The opposition has been pushing for the quick appointment of justices to fill three vacancies on the nine-member Constitutional Court, as a full bench would increase the likelihood of endorsing Yoon’s impeachment.

The PPP has countered that Han, as acting president, does not have the authority to appoint justices until Yoon is formally impeached.

In a televised briefing on Thursday, Han stated that he would not approve the appointments until the ruling and opposition blocs reached an agreement on the matter.

The DPK also argued that the prime minister deserved impeachment for additional reasons, including his veto of special probe bills targeting the presidential couple, his alleged involvement in Yoon’s botched martial law imposition, and his attempt earlier this month to establish a power-sharing arrangement with then-PPP leader Han Dong-hoon. The party claimed that these actions lacked legal grounds.

DPK leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung described Han’s impeachment as part of the party’s efforts to dismantle what he referred to as “rebellion forces” linked to Yoon’s martial law fallout.

“We will mobilize all resources and fulfill our historical responsibility until Yoon Suk Yeol is removed from office, his loyalist forces are eradicated, and the rebellion is fully suppressed,” Lee said during a briefing, hours before the impeachment vote.

The PPP criticized the opposition’s move, calling the DPK “a serial impeachment offender.”

“This is already the 29th impeachment motion under the incumbent administration,” said PPP acting leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, questioning whether other Cabinet members would also face impeachment.

The governing party filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court against the Assembly speaker shortly after the motion was passed, claiming that Han’s impeachment lacks legal basis.

“Despite the fact that the prime minister holds the role of acting president, his failure to apply the quorum threshold for the president is a major violation of the Constitution,” the party said in a statement.

Following Han’s impeachment, Choi, the deputy prime minister, will assume the role of acting president.

However, it remains uncertain whether Choi, a seasoned economist who also serves as finance minister, will cooperate with the opposition parties in appointing Constitutional Court justices. It is also unclear how active he will be in exercising power in this unprecedented situation, where leadership has passed to the No. 3 figure in the government hierarchy.

“Minimizing the chaos in state affairs is the most urgent task right now. The government will put all of its efforts into maintaining robust security, a stable economy, and law and order, so that the safety of the nation and people’s daily lives are not disrupted,” Choi said in a public address, following Han’s suspension of duty.

Before the parliamentary vote on Han’s impeachment, Choi had requested the DPK to reconsider its move, expressing concerns that ousting the acting president would deal a heavy blow to the nation’s economy.

“The absence of a control tower for state affairs will deal a severe blow to Korea’s credibility, security, the economy and continuity of governance, as already evident in the sharp weakening of the won against the dollar,” Choi said during a press briefing.

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With a meeting coming up this week between the foreign ministers of the two nations, spurring ongoing discussions for the high-stakes trilateral summit, Seoul has apparently opted for a cautious approach toward the North Korean defector issue to avoid triggering further tensions.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul will embark on a two-day visit to Beijing, Monday, the first visit in more than six years by a top South Korean diplomat to the Chinese capital.

The Yoon Suk Yeol government has consistently urged Beijing to refrain from repatriating North Korean escapees against their will, but this has been significantly toned down — even though China recently sent back dozens of North Korean defectors.

The Korean Unification Solidarity, an organization for North Korean refugees, claimed last week that around 200 North Korean refugees who were apprehended in northeast China’s Jilin province were forcibly sent back to their reclusive home country on April 26. According to the international organization Human Rights Watch, the Chinese government forcibly returned about 60 North Korean refugees in a similar period.

However, the South Korean government has refrained from issuing an official condemnation of China’s recent actions, a departure from its previous practices.

The Ministry of Unification reiterated its position that North Korean defectors should not be returned against their will under any circumstances, without officially confirming the speculation.

This marks a shift from the ministry’s response last October when the Chinese government repatriated at least 500 North Korean defectors following the Hangzhou Asian Games. At that time, the unification ministry officially acknowledged the repatriation just two days after human rights organizations raised the speculation, and said, “We have strongly raised this issue with the Chinese government and regret the situation.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to confirm whether South Korea has lodged a protest to China through diplomatic channels regarding the latest repatriation that occurred in April, stating that “related discussions with China have been ongoing at various levels.”

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul speaks during a closing ceremony for a meeting of South Korean overseas diplomatic mission chiefs at the ministry headquarters in Seoul, April 26. Yonhap

Lee Sang-man, a Chinese affairs expert at the Kyungnam University Institute for Far Eastern Studies, suggested that it is unlikely South Korea has lodged a strong protest with China, nor will Minister Cho bring up the issue during his upcoming meeting with Wang.

Lee viewed that the seemingly restrained response is aimed at avoiding any disruption to the preparations for the upcoming trilateral summit, which is likely to be held in Seoul from May 26 to 27.

Amid enhancing trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, China has shown reluctance to participate in the event, the rotating chair of which is currently held by Korea. The last such summit took place in 2019.

“The primary objective of Cho’s visit is to lay the groundwork for the summit. Bringing up the issue of North Korean escapees, where reaching common ground between the two sides is elusive, would not be a good idea. It’s important for Seoul to keep efforts to find common priorities with China for the summit,” Lee said.

Lee also viewed that South Korea’s repeated demands for China to halt the repatriation have not yielded desired results, as Beijing sometimes uses the North Korean refugee issue as diplomatic leverage against Seoul.

“The trilateral meeting, if held, would be meaningful in spurring the long-stalled three-way cooperation. However, consensus on security matters would be challenging to achieve. Less sensitive topics such as people-to-people exchanges, environmental issues and cyberspace could offer areas of agreement,” he noted.

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The itinerary chosen by Xi was a message in itself. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban are both difficult partners for European leaders and make no secret of their good relations with the Kremlin. The choice of Belgrade and Budapest after Paris was a way of highlighting Europe’s divisions.

In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron conveniently included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in his first talks with Xi, as he has always done. Unfortunately, he failed to attract German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose policy toward China remains dominated by the interests of his country’s industrialists.

Minimum required on Ukraine

This absence – Angela Merkel was in Paris during President Xi’s previous visit in 2019 – weakened the firm stance clearly set out by von der Leyen and Macron on the serious trade disputes between China and the EU, which were one of the two big issues, seen from Paris, in the discussions with the Chinese leader. As Brussels seeks to counter Beijing’s public policies, which have seen Chinese producers of electric cars in particular flood European markets, Xi imperturbably denied “an alleged overcapacity problem.”

The same was true of the second priority issue for Paris and Brussels: the war in Ukraine. When asked not to support Russia’s war effort, Xi did the minimum required in private, then took offense in public at the fact that this could be used to “blacken the image” of China, or even “incite a new Cold War.” The Chinese president will welcome Vladimir Putin to Beijing later this month.

The Serbian and Hungarian stops were considerably more cordial – and economically more fruitful. In Belgrade, the choice of the anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy by NATO during the Kosovo war on May 7, 1999 – Beijing has never accepted Washington’s claim that it was a mistake – was a way of perpetuating NATO’s image as an aggressor. As for Hungary, whose “independent” foreign policy Xi praised, it was graced with 18 economic cooperation agreements and a promotion to one of the highest ranks in the qualification of its strategic partnership with Beijing.

Clearly, Xi has chosen his camp in Europe, that of autocratic rulers, eager for Chinese investment without being fussy. Experts who thought the Chinese president was ready to flatter Europe’s strategic autonomy in order to drive a wedge with the United States and reinforce his idea of a “multipolar world” have been proven wrong. Xi’s multipolar world is first and foremost a world with Chinese features.

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An MP from a party allied with Prime Minister Modi’s BJP in Karnataka state has been accused of sexually abusing multiple women, sparking a controversy amid a national election.

Standing behind former Indian Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, the country’s current leader Narendra Modi smiled into the cameras. Next to Modi was HD Revanna, the son of Deve Gowda. In another photo of that meeting, a young man can be seen standing a few feet away from Modi.

That young man, Prajwal Revanna, is now at the centre of a political firestorm that threatens to reset the electoral landscape of the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Prajwal, his father and grandfather belong to the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), a regional party allied with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the ongoing national elections. It is an alliance that the BJP was counting on to deliver its coalition a majority of Karnataka’s 28 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament.

But the leak of nearly 3,000 videos, allegedly shot by the 33-year-old Prajwal, apparently showing him sexually abusing multiple women, has tuned the alliance into a weapon the opposition Congress Party is using against Modi and the BJP.

Prajwal, the sitting member of parliament from Hassan in Karnataka, contested as the coalition’s candidate from the constituency again when it voted on April 26, in the second phase of the national election. Now, the sex scandal hovers over the remainder of Karnataka’s election on May 7 – when 14 of the state’s seats vote.

Alka Lamba, the president of the Congress Party’s women’s wing, said the videos had “shaken the conscience of Kannadigas [people whose roots originate from Karnataka and speak Kannada] and Indians alike,” in a statement to Al Jazeera.

“In these videos, some recorded against the consent of the victim, women are pleading to be spared but MP Prajwal Revanna continues to brutalise and sexually violate them,” she said.

Separately, a woman has filed a police complaint against Prajwal, accusing him of sexually assaulting her between 2019 and 2022.

Prajwal Revanna has denied all allegations and filed a counter-complaint on Sunday claiming that the videos circulating “are doctored”. He has left for Germany, where he is believed to be at the moment.

On Tuesday, the JD(S) said it had temporarily suspended the MP from the party. Meanwhile, the Congress-led state government has launched a police investigation into the allegations against Prajwal.

But questions have also emerged over whether the BJP knew about the videos: Prajwal’s former driver has confessed to having leaked the videos on a flash drive to another BJP leader, Devarajegowda.

Did the BJP know?

The sex scandal has erupted at a time when Modi has sharpened his political focus on Karnataka, ahead of the May 7 third-phase vote. On Sunday, Modi campaigned in Belagavi, Karnataka.

“Our daughters are not safe under the Congress government in Karnataka,” Modi said at the rally and added that his party would protect women if they were elected to power.

Since the Prajwal scandal emerged, the BJP has distanced itself from the case.

“The case of MP Prajwal Revanna is shocking. BJP’s stand on this matter is clear – we stand with the power of Nari Shakti [women’s power]. BJP will never tolerate humiliation of Nari Shakti,” Vijay Prakash, a BJP spokesperson in Karnataka, told Al Jazeera when asked for the party’s response.

“Even though the Congress government is in power in Karnataka, it is doing politics instead of taking strict action. Instead of asking us questions, congressmen should question the Congress government in the state.”

But members from the Congress have accused the BJP of being aware of the videos.

In a December 2023 letter shared by many Congress Party members on social media and seen by Al Jazeera, Karnataka BJP leader Devarajegowda warned the party against nominating Prajwal as a candidate from Hassan.

“There are grave allegations against several leaders of the HD Deve Gowda family (including Prajwal Revanna, the NDA candidate) of the JD(S), the party that we are in alliance with,” his letter said.

He said that he had also received a flash drive with the videos of the women Revanna had allegedly sexually abused.

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also lashed out at Prime Minister Modi for remaining silent on the case and supporting Prajwal’s candidature.

“Just hearing about his heinous crimes makes my heart tremble. He has ruined the lives of hundreds of women. Modi ji will you remain silent?” she said in a post on X.

Congress Party members organised protests outside their office in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka on April 28 and April 29, against Prajwal.

How will elections be impacted?

Still, it is unclear whether the allegations against Prajwal will stick – and whether they will hurt the BJP-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka, or the prime minister nationally.

“The voter for the BJP party and Modi ignores these indiscretions,” Rasheed Kidwai, an author and political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

He referred to another instance in 2023 when BJP MP Brij Bhushan Singh, who heads India’s wrestling federation, was accused of sexual abuse by many of the country’s top female wrestlers. Singh remains a free man, out on bail, and the BJP is not known to have censured him.

There will be some impact, however, on voting patterns, said Kidwai. “It will impact neutral or swing voters while the political impact will remain confined to Karnataka,” Kidwai said.

What’s next?

The JD(S) is on the defensive. A letter from party legislator Sharan Gouda Kandkur, made public, describes the videos as having caused huge “embarrassment” to the JD(S).

Former Prime Minister Deve Gowda – Prajwal’s grandfather – has spoken too. “If there is any wrongdoing, action should be taken,” he said, insisting that the family and party leadership had no prior knowledge of the accusations.

That Prajwal left the country amid the accusations is not surprising, said Kidwai.

“There is [a] lot of shame in matters of sex… so politicians duck and flee instead of going through a trial,” he said.

But addressing a news conference in Karnataka on Monday, the state’s former Chief Minister and Prajwal’s uncle HD Kumaraswamy said his nephew would not be forgiven if proven guilty.

“Uppu thindavanu neeru kudiyabeku,” he said, referring to a Kannada proverb that means, “Whoever has consumed salt, will drink water”.

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About 12,000 trainee doctors have left their worksites since Feb. 20 in protest of the plan to boost the number of medical students by 2,000, causing delays in medical treatments, with some emergency rooms partially limiting their treatment of critically ill patients.

Lim Hyun-taek, the president-elect of the Korean Medical Association (KMA), pressed the government to fully scrap its proposed medical reform plans, including the medical school quota hike, to open a discussion with doctors from scratch.

“This is not a conflict between the medical community and the government. Rather, it is a unilateral abuse of power by the authorities,” Lim said in a general meeting of the KMA in Seoul. “Otherwise, the medical community will not budge, and not respond to any call for negotiations.”

A presidential committee on medical reform was formally launched on Thursday to seek a breakthrough over a prolonged walkout by doctors, but the KMA has been boycotting the initiative as well.

Lim, known for his hawkish stance in the ongoing stalemate with the government, is set to begin his official term starting on Wednesday.

Last week, the police conducted an additional raid on Lim, who is accused of having instigated collective resignations by junior doctors

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it additionally seized Lim’s mobile phone and sent investigators to his office in western Seoul and his residence in Asan, 83 kilometers south of Seoul.

The police seized Lim’s phone in their previous raid in March, but it was confirmed to have been used by him in the past. (Yonhap)

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The two aircraft, which crashed in waters around 270 kilometers east of Torishima Island in the Izu Island chain during a nighttime anti-submarine drill in the area, are believed to have collided with each other, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters Sunday. The Izu Islands are located south of Tokyo.

The crash added to a series of fatal accidents including Japanese Self-Defense Forces aircraft in recent years, fueling public concern over the safety of their flights despite the government’s efforts to sharply increase defense spending.

“We have been providing education to ensure that lessons from past incidents are not forgotten, but this kind of accident has occurred, so it is a matter of the greatest regret,” Kihara said, recognizing the frequency of accidents within the SDF.

The SH-60K helicopters, each carrying four crew members, lost contact at 10:38 p.m. and 11:04 p.m., respectively, with the MSDF receiving an emergency signal at 10:39 p.m., according to the MSDF.

The emergency signal was possibly emitted from the two choppers simultaneously on the same wavelength, Kihara said.

Two flight recorders were recovered “at extremely close locations” and are now under analysis, while what appears to be rotor blade parts from the two helicopters and other aircraft debris was also found during a post-accident search, he said.

Following the accident, the MSDF suspended all training involving SH-60K helicopters, made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., and set up a panel to investigate the incident, according to Adm. Ryo Sakai, chief of staff of the MSDF.

Together with another MSDF helicopter, the two crashed aircraft were conducting an exercise to detect and attack a submarine, after taking off from separate destroyers that were deployed near the incident site, Sakai told a press conference.

Sakai said no abnormality in the equipment of the two aircraft has been reported, adding that the water depth near the crash site is about 5,500 meters.

One of the choppers belonged to Komatsushima Air Base in Tokushima Prefecture, while the other was based at Omura Air Base in Nagasaki Prefecture.

The cause of the accident is still unknown, but the ministry will do its utmost to search for and rescue those who are missing, Kihara said.

With a length of 19.8 meters and a weight of 10.9 tons, the MSDF’s SH-60K can carry up to four people and has its own anti-submarine system, modeled after the U.S. Navy’s SH-60 chopper.

Recent deadly incidents by SDF aircraft include a crash of a UH-60JA helicopter of the Ground Self-Defense Force into the sea in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2023, resulting in the deaths of all 10 people aboard.

In January 2022, an Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter jet crashed into the Sea of Japan off Ishikawa Prefecture in the central part of the country, killing two pilots.

Under its war-renouncing Constitution, Japan had long capped its annual defense budget at around 1 percent of its gross domestic product, or about 5 trillion yen ($32 billion).

But the government pledged in 2022 to almost double it to 2 percent or more in five years through March 2028, amid growing security challenges such as China’s military buildup and North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs.

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Political analysts warn such inconsistency is likely to breed public distrust in the government.

The latest incident occurred during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, where Yoon delivered approximately 12 minutes of remarks that were broadcast nationwide.

In his address, Yoon conveyed his humble acceptance of the public sentiment reflected in the ruling People Power Party’s (PPP) crushing defeat in last week’s general elections. However, he staunchly asserted that he has been steering the country in the right direction.

However, four hours later, a senior secretary said that during the latter part of the meeting, which was not televised, Yoon expressed remorse to Cabinet members, admitting that he was “sorry” for failing to fully acknowledge the public’s sentiment.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) condemned Yoon’s approach to delivering his message, asserting that he should have offered his apology directly to the public during the televised statement, rather than doing so behind closed doors.

“Four hours after President Yoon’s televised statement, the presidential office revealed his remarks made behind closed doors, saying that he is sorry to the public … Is this a monologue after a play ended and the audience is gone?” DPK Supreme Council member Rep. Jung Chung-rae said during the party’s Supreme Council meeting, Wednesday.

Minor liberal Rebuilding Korea Party Chairman Cho Kuk also said Yoon’s rhetoric was absurd.

“I also served as a presidential secretary, and the president’s statements should have started and ended by apologizing to the public,” Cho said during a YouTube appearance, Wednesday .

Cho also claimed that Yoon’s apology, quoted by the presidential office, “seems to be a lie” because “there is a strong chance that one of his aides sought approval to allude to the president’s apology, because Yoon did not say he is sorry during his speech.”

A ruling bloc official, who asked not to be named, also admitted to feeling “confused,” noting that the initial impression from Yoon’s televised message suggested confidence in his political philosophy, despite acknowledging some shortcomings in its implementation.

This is not the first time that Yoon has conveyed a hardline message in a televised setting, only to have his secretaries attempt to soften the president’s rhetoric with conflicting interpretations afterward.

During a 51-minute address to the nation on April 1, Yoon underscored his steadfast commitment to increasing the admissions quota of the country’s medical schools by 2,000 slots from next year. This announcement sparked a nationwide walkout by trainee doctors, lasting nearly two months.

As the address backfired among doctors, presidential aides, including Director of National Policy Sung Tae-yoon, emphasized that the highlight of Yoon’s message was his brief remark stating that “the government may engage in discussions with doctors regarding the slots, provided they present more rational and valid ideas.”

Experts said the main problem is a lack of coherence in the government’s communication.

“The biggest problem stemming from the difference between the president’s remarks and his aides’ interpretations is the inconsistency in the government’s message,” said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University.

“If the government’s message is inconsistent, the public will lose trust in the government, and the government cannot carry out its policies,” Shin said.

The professor also said that Yoon fails to grasp the essence of politics, which revolves around presenting oneself as a politician rather than simply urging the public to understand his true beliefs.

“It seems like the president was speaking that way because when he looks at the facts alone, he doesn’t think he made any policy mistakes. So he just spoke that way. However, politics is about shaping perceptions among people. It seems like he does not care about how the public perceives him.”

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With almost all votes counted, the DPK won 161 out of 254 directly contested seats, while the PPP won only 90 seats. Including proportional seats, the DPK and its satellite party were expected to win 176 seats and the PPP and its satellite party 109 seats in the 300-member National Assembly.

The wider opposition bloc, including the Rebuilding Korea Party led by scandal-tainted former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, is expected to win more than 180 seats combined, as Cho’s party is expected to secure 12-14 proportional seats.

The New Future Party (Saemirae), formed by former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, and the New Reform Party led by ousted former PPP leader Lee Jun-seok are expected to secure one and three seats, respectively.

The results illustrated the seriously soured public sentiment toward the Yoon administration just two years after he came into office, with the PPP barely managing to prevent the broader opposition bloc from taking a two-thirds majority.

In the previous elections four year ago, the then ruling DPK also clinched a landslide victory by securing a combined 180 seats with its satellite party while the United Future Party, the PPP’s former name, and its sister party got 103 seats.

Of the votes cast for the 46 proportional seats, more than 93 percent have been counted.

In the proportional race, the PPP’s sister People Future Party was leading with 37 percent, followed by the DPK’s sister Democratic United Party with 27 percent and Cho’s Rebuilding Korea Party with 24 percent.

This year’s vote carried extra weight for the PPP as a failure to regain a majority could potentially render the Yoon administration a lame duck for the remaining three years of his single five-year term, ending in 2027.

The PPP has pleaded for voter support, imploring that the Yoon administration has been unable to push its reform agenda properly forward for the past two years due to the uncooperative parliament under opposition control.

The DPK, on the other hand, has urged voters to pass stern judgment on what it calls the “incompetent” Yoon administration, accusing it of causing the economy and the livelihoods of the people to worsen seriously and mishandling a series of controversial issues for the past two years.

Following the release of exit poll results Wednesday, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon expressed disappointment.

“The PPP did its best to do politics that uphold the will of the people, but the exit poll results are disappointing,” Han said after watching the results at the National Assembly with party members. “We will watch the results of vote counting until the end.”

Han is set to make an announcement regarding the election outcome later, probably after the final outcome, contrary to the tradition of the party leader making the announcement amid the voting count.

Following the announcement of his victory against former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong of the PPP in Incheon’s Gyeyang-B district early Thursday, DPK Chairman Lee emphasized that he will stop the regression of the country’s state affairs and make it move toward the future once again.

Cho, the former justice minister, also hailed the exit poll results as a victory for the people.

“The people have won,” Cho said after watching the exit polls Wednesday. “The people have made their intent clear that it is a verdict handed down to the Yoon Suk Yeol government.”

Cho said the results showed that the people can “no longer put up with the regression” of the government, urging Yoon to humbly accept the election outcome.

In the wider Seoul area, considered the primary battleground that ultimately shapes the election outcome, the DPK swept 102 out of 122 constituencies.

The DPK also grabbed 53 seats in Gyeonggi Province with 60 seats at stake. The region is traditionally considered a stronghold for the party.

In contrast, some PPP candidates emerged victorious in some districts in the region after closely contested races.

In Seoul’s Dongjak-B district, Na Kyung-won of the PPP secured a victory against DPK candidate Ryu Sam-young.

In a surprise outcome, Lee Jun-seok, an ousted former leader of the PPP, also secured his first-ever parliamentary seat in the Hwaseong-B district in Gyeonggi Province.

Voter turnout recorded the highest in 32 years.

A total of 14,259 polling stations across the nation closed at 6 p.m. Wednesday, after some 29.66 million, or 67 percent, of the total 44.28 million eligible voters had cast their ballots for 12 hours, according to the National Election Commission. The results were tentative.

The turnout was 0.8 percentage point higher than the 2020 tally of 66.2 percent, marking the highest turnout for general elections since 1992, when the turnout came in at 71.9 percent. (Yonhap)

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In Tokyo, the “Somei Yoshino” variety at Yasukuni Shrine, used for the Japan Meteorological Agency’s observation in the capital, came into bloom. The year’s bloom in Tokyo came five days later than average and 15 days later than last year.

Kyoto also saw its first cherry blossoms of the season with the bloom occurring three days later than average, according to the local weather observatory.

Private weather service company Weathernews Inc. predicts blossoms in northeastern regions in early April and in the northern main island of Hokkaido by late April.

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