South Korea parliament votes to impeach minister over Itaewon Halloween crush

The South Korean parliament this week voted to impeach the country’s interior minister over the response to the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon last year. This would clear the way for the minister to become the first cabinet member ousted by the South Korean legislature.

The South Korean parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution of 179 to 109 via secret ballot to impeach interior minister Lee Sang-min. The motion needs the support of 150 members to pass, and the opposition Democratic Party holds a 169-seat majority. The opposition parties have called for Lee’s impeachment over the flawed response to the Halloween crowd crush in the Itaewon district that led to 159 people dead.

The parliament’s justice committee is set to review the motion before it is sent to the Constitutional Court, which will determine whether to uphold the impeachment. The process may take up to six months.

“I fully cooperate with the constitutional court’s impeachment trial so that the Ministry of Interior and Safety can be normalized at an early date,” Lee said in a statement following the motion by parliament.

Lee and law enforcement authorities have faced criticism over the handling of the incident following the release of transcripts of emergency calls showing that many citizens were warning of impending danger and calling for help hours before the crush. Lee has since apologized for the flawed responses, but when pressed about whether he was willing to resign, Lee said that he was focusing on taking measures to prevent such an incident from happening again.

President Yoon Suk-yeol rejected the demand to impeach Lee, accusing the opposition Democrats of abusing their majority power to move forward with the impeachment.

On Thursday, the South Korean anti-trust regulator said it would be imposing a combined $33.48 million fine on German automobile manufacturers for colluding to curb emissions-cleaning technology for their diesel-powered vehicles. Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen were involved in collusion that reduced competition and restricted consumer choice, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission in a statement.

Mercedes Benz and its Korean unit were previously fined ₩20.2 billion for false advertising related to gas emissions for diesel passenger vehicles last year.