Strategic political decisions made by party leaders

[Anchor]

Now, let's delve deeper into the political news with reporter Kim Jin-ho.

First, Representative Lee Jae-myung has announced a decision to suspend the impeachment of acting Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

How should we interpret this?

[Reporter]

Representative Lee stated that "too many impeachments could lead to confusion in state affairs."

However, looking at the underlying reasons, it seems that there is a greater need for acting Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

Currently, as the representative of the government, acting President Han is a key figure in establishing a national policy council.

Additionally, it seems that a vote on appointment confirmations will take place in the National Assembly on the 30th of this month, and acting President Han must also handle the appointment of Constitutional Court judges recommended by the National Assembly.

There is also analysis that since acting President Han is a suspect in the rebellion case, the Democratic Party could use their decision to not impeach him as leverage to pressure the government regarding the special council investigation bill and other matters.

Representative Lee also revealed that he had a phone call with acting President Han yesterday (Dec. 14).

During this call, Representative Lee reportedly asked him to "approach state affairs neutrally, regardless of political factions."

Ultimately, it can be understood that the Democratic Party has made the judgment that they need the support of acting President Han, or at least that there should be no opposition against him, in order to lead the political landscape.

[Anchor]

It seems that the Democratic Party's stance on the budget proposal has also changed significantly. What do you think?

[Reporter]

Initially, the budget cut proposal that the Democratic Party processed unilaterally did not reflect what is known as the "Democratic Party's budget."

Therefore, the budget cut was seen as a strategy to serve as leverage.

This could have been a way to draw the government and ruling party to the negotiation table.

However, because of the emergency martial law crisis, the Democratic Party's "negotiating power" has increased significantly.

Representative Lee has not hidden his intention to increase the budget for local currency, which is referred to as the "Lee Jae-myung budget."

[Anchor]

Let's also look at the People Power Party. Representative Han Dong-hoon is scheduled to hold a press conference tomorrow morning, right?

What will he talk about?

[Reporter]

Yes, today (Dec. 15), reporters have been covering what position Representative Han will take all day, but he has not revealed his stance.

He is set to hold a press conference at 10:30 AM tomorrow, and the atmosphere seems to be leaning towards resignation.

Even if he does not resign, it does not seem easy for him to maintain his position as party leader.

Five members of the Supreme Council, including pro-Han members, have already resigned, and transitioning to an emergency leadership committee is a predetermined course of action.

This would mean that Representative Han would appoint a chairperson for the emergency committee, which needs approval from the national committee.

In this process, the internal strife within the People Power Party could escalate uncontrollably, and maintaining his leadership position under these circumstances seems to be at odds with the political justification Representative Han has shown so far.

For these various reasons, there are speculations that Representative Han may resign during tomorrow's press conference.

[Anchor]

When the impeachment motion was passed, there were as many as 23 defective votes from the People Power Party, right?

There were votes in favor of impeachment, but there were also abstentions and invalid votes that have become a topic of discussion?

[Reporter]

Yes, during the vote, there were 8 invalid votes and 3 abstentions.

To be considered valid, the ballot must indicate "yes" or "no" in either Hangul or Hanja.

However, among the invalid votes, ballots were found that included both "yes" and "no" or had a large dot drawn on them.

There is an analysis that some lawmakers, who were struggling between the public support for impeachment and the backlash from their supporters, could not cast a favorable vote and expressed their complicated feelings.

Yes, thank you for the report.