Hong Jun-pyo "Yoon, Is It Necessary to Send Him to Prison... Not Suitable for National Dignity"

"Is This the Time to Be Engulfed in Civil War Like a Backward Country?"
"Yoon, During a Major Crisis Stand-off"

Hong Jun-pyo, Mayor of Daegu, appealed ahead of the second vote on the National Assembly's impeachment motion against President Yoon Seok-yeol, saying, "Since we elected him wrongly, we could just ask him to step down, so why must we impose the serious charge of treason and send him to prison?" He argued, "While it is true that President Yoon's handling of the political situation has been rough and inexperienced, sending him to prison for treason is not desirable for Korean politics and national dignity."

Daegu Mayor Hong Jun-pyo and President Yoon Seok-yeol
Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers Group

On the 14th, Mayor Hong stated on Facebook, "In the last presidential election, the people politically elected an inexperienced president, attracted by the freshness of a new product," adding, "Asking such a person to show the seasoned skills of the 'Three Kims politics' was unreasonable from the start."

He criticized President Yoon's governance by saying, "For the past two and a half years, the administration has been prosecutor politics, rough, and failed to resolve issues through dialogue and compromise, eventually leading to a state of emergency," but opposed the impeachment motion by saying, "Since we elected him wrongly, we could just ask him to step down, so why must we impose the serious charge of treason and send him to prison?"

Mayor Hong also questioned, "With the Ukraine war escalating into a world war due to North Korea's involvement, the Middle East powder keg reignited by the Israel war, global tensions rising with the launch of Trump's second term, and the US-China hegemony war era ushered in by Xi Jinping's grand strategy, is this the time for us to be engulfed in treason like a backward country?" He then urged, "Now, let's tell President Yoon, 'Do not cause further national chaos and step down by the people's order,' and have the ruling and opposition parties compromise to conclude with an orderly resignation."

Finally, he said, "It is time for 大亂大治 (great disorder requires great governance)," and asked President Yoon to express his intention to resign before the impeachment vote. The day before, Mayor Hong told reporters at the opening ceremony of the Daegu metropolitan railway (Daegyeong Line), "Betrayers keep emerging now, so the possibility of impeachment being passed is high."

The National Assembly decided to hold a vote on President Yoon's impeachment motion at 4 p.m. that day. This is the second impeachment motion following the one on the 7th. During the first impeachment, the People Power Party largely abstained from voting, resulting in a failure to meet the required quorum and the motion was discarded. Approval requires the support of at least two-thirds of the total members, meaning 200 or more votes.