Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party (DP) in South Korea, stated on Monday that he agrees the Constitution should be revised. However, he added that the immediate focus should be on resolving the social unrest stemming from former President Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s unsuccessful martial law proposal.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s statement came a day after National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik suggested holding a national referendum on constitutional revision before the presidential election, which must occur within 60 days following Yoon\u2019s removal from office by the Constitutional Court this past Friday.<\/p>\n
Lee effectively rejected Woo\u2019s proposal, stating, “Constitutional revision is necessary, but ending the insurrection must come first.”<\/p>\n
In addition to the impeachment, Yoon faces separate criminal charges related to insurrection for the brief martial law he declared on December 3.<\/p>\n
Lee conditionally agreed to the amendment, pointing out the legal challenges of holding a referendum in conjunction with the election, given that early voting is not permitted for referendums under current law.<\/p>\n
“If the National Referendum Act is revised and a constitutional amendment becomes practically feasible, we can do it immediately,” he said.<\/p>\n
Lee conditionally supported a constitutional amendment that reflects the spirit of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju and tightens the requirements for declaring martial law.<\/p>\n
Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, is seen as a leading candidate in the upcoming race. The government is expected to approve June 3 as the election day at Tuesday\u2019s cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party (DP) in South Korea, stated on Monday that he agrees the Constitution should be revised. However, he added that the immediate focus should be on resolving the social unrest stemming from former President Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s unsuccessful martial law proposal. Lee\u2019s statement came a day after National […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8875,4298,8870,4118,8873,4107,4131,7689,4108,4132,8872,4021,8874,4332,1194,8871,2160],"class_list":["post-8760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-2022-presidential-election","tag-constitutional-court","tag-constitutional-revision","tag-democratic-party","tag-gwangju-uprising","tag-impeachment","tag-insurrection","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-martial-law","tag-national-assembly","tag-national-referendum-act","tag-presidential-election","tag-pro-democracy","tag-referendum","tag-south-korea","tag-woo-won-sik","tag-yoon-suk-yeol"],"yoast_head":"\n