Woo Won-shik, the speaker of South Korea's National Assembly, said Saturday that a plenary vote on a constitutional amendment bill jointly introduced by 187 lawmakers was expected within days, and urged the People Power Party to take part in the vote.
In a Facebook post, Woo said the bill's passage remained uncertain because the People Power Party opposes it as a party line. He again asked the party to lift its opposition and participate in the vote.
Addressing the party, Woo said it was "deeply regrettable" that it opposed an amendment meant to ensure that an illegal imposition of martial law could not even be contemplated, despite what he described as an apology over martial law and efforts to sever ties with Yoon Suk Yeol. He urged the party to join what he called his proposal to "cross the river of insurrection" together by backing the amendment.
Woo also stressed that the core of the amendment was preventing a "second Yoon Suk Yeol." He said it could not be guaranteed that there would never again be a second or third Yoon with "extreme thinking," and called for changing the National Assembly's constitutional power to lift martial law into a power to approve it, and for immediately suspending the effect of martial law once the Assembly votes, to prevent any attempt at illegal martial law.
On April 3, floor leaders of six parties, excluding the People Power Party, submitted the amendment bill to the National Assembly under the names of 187 lawmakers. The People Power Party has opposed it, calling it a rushed, election-driven amendment.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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