...to move the impeachment of "suspended" president Yoon Seok-yeol of South Korea is being stonewalled by the prime minister. In order to reach and maintain a quorum of 7 in the Constitutional Court necessary to rule on Yoon impeachment during the 180 day allowed period, three additional justices need to be appointed by the acting president. He currently appears to have no inclination to do so. The opposition PPP (conservative) party has argued publicly, that the "acting president" doesn't have this power. This is another issue that may prompt Han's impeachment after the end of December. This however, looks like a merry-go-round, where the same stonewalling will derail the constitutional processes.

In response, the democratic opposition party has moved beyond the impeachment threat, to notifying Han that if he continues to obstruct the constitutional processes, "he will face spending the rest of his life in jail," with the other coup plotters.

(edit- correction "opposition" where I struck it out, I meant to say PPP, the conservative party, i.e., Yoon and Han Duck-soo's party).

Could the leading expert on Korean history in the US even get published by the US msm at a time like this? Here his his opinion is being published in a minor online progressive publication in South Korea:

Bruce Cumings: "Yoon Seok-yeol Will Be Thrown Into the Trash Can of History"

He continued, "Yoon Seok-yeol also seems to be living in a bizarre time warp, as if less than 45 years have passed since the last martial law was declared in South Korea," adding, "This is as anachronistic as (Russian President) Vladimir Putin declaring the restoration of the dictatorship of the proletariat."

Cummings sees Yoon Seok-yeol as “the first South Korean president who enjoys being a puppet of Washington and Tokyo.” He sees him as having taken the lead in pursuing pro-Japanese, submissive diplomacy that pardons Japan’s tragic colonial past in order to support the Joe Biden administration’s military alliance with South Korea, the US, and Japan to blockade China.

In this regard, Cumings predicted that "this three-way gamble contributed greatly to the decline in Yoon's popularity, and he was already recording the worst approval rating of 20% before his incompetent declaration of martial law," and that "Biden's boasted three-way cooperation is likely to break down if the opposition party takes power."

출처 : 세상을 바꾸는 시민언론 민들레(https://www.mindlenews.com)

(excerpt is a browser translation, original source in Hangul)

I take Cummings' opinion that "Yoon's impeachment proves the strength of Korean democracy" as a reference to the strength of the idea in South Korean culture, rather than the current political and institutional situation. He's seems confident though that the Constitutional Court will impeach Yoon. The idea that South Korea could be reduced to the status of a banana republic seems too far fetched for him to contemplate. I hope he's right. No doubt, the political and military leaders who supported and continue to support Yoon, are living in a delusion of their own making. 75 percent of South Koreans want him to be dismissed from his office by the Constitutional Court. If one views the both siderism in the US press that tries to lay responsibility for the current political instability at the feet of the democratic majority in the National Assembly, they are simply repeating Yoon's ridiculously absurd defense that the majority in the Assembly paralyzed the government and endangered the security and livelihoods of the South Korean democracy.

Victor Cha the US establishment touted Korea expert from CSIS who promotes and advocates the official US-Japan policy line on South Korea, has an article in the Atlantic which is behind a pay wall. You have to pay if you want to read his neocon bs.

Some are anticipating a warrant may issue for Yoon's arrest as early as Tuesday if he doesn't respond to summons for questioning. Who will enforce it? Will the Presidential Guard physically oppose execution of such a warrant?