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Proceedings to Impeach South Korean President Underway; Francois Bayrou Becomes New French Prime Minister; U.S., E.U. and Middle East Diplomats Meet on Syria's Future. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2024 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

We begin in South Korea and what could be a monumental day in that country's history. Yet another round of impeachment proceedings against the embattled president is now underway.

And voting in parliament just ended moments ago, the second vote in a matter of days on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol after his attempt to impose martial law, a move which sparked a political crisis and widespread anger across the country.

I want to go live now to Ivan Watson, who's in Hong Kong.

So Ivan, the voting itself has ended.

Any sense of which way things are going?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They're moving very quickly right now. Kim, just seconds ago, the officials in the national assembly completed the count of the vote. And all 300 lawmakers voted. So this has moved very, very quickly.

And it's quite different from what we saw a week ago in the same halls of the national assembly, when there was not effectively a quorum, when the president's political party abstained from participating in the vote. And so the impeachment effort failed.

Here we see that the ruling political party, the People Power Party, has participated. So you have 300 legislators that have all participated in this vote. We are waiting to find out whether or not the president has been impeached.

Again, it is just 1.5 weeks ago that President Yoon Suk-yeol made a short-lived attempt to impose martial law on South Korea. It was overturned within a matter of hours by this same assembly body.

And there has been widespread condemnation of this, what many, I think, in South Korea see as having been an unconstitutional power grab by a president who was frustrated with opposition in the very halls of this national assembly.

So we're just waiting right now to get the results of what could potentially be an historic vote. In 2016, Kim, another president at that time, Park Geun-hye, she was impeached amid allegations of corruption and stripped of her office, then subsequently by the constitutional court and then ultimately ended up in jail.

President Yoon right now is in a lot of hot water. He's had police raid the presidential offices in the last couple of days. And now we're learning, waiting to find out what his fate has been just moments ago in this vote in the national assembly. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, interesting. So we'll wait for those votes to be tabulated now, as the voting has ended. We'll come back to you a little later. Ivan Watson in Hong Kong. Appreciate that.

I want to bring in from Seoul Kenneth Choi. He's the deputy managing editor of the "Chosun Ilbo."

Thank you so much for being here with us. So now that the voting has ended, I mean, this is all about the math.

Will they get to the 200?

I mean, the fact that the voting happened so quickly, do you have any sense of which way the wind is blowing?

KENNETH CHOI, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, "CHOSUN ILBO": Well, I think right -- the whole thing tilted toward impeachment because the seven members of the ruling party stated out that they will vote for the impeachment.

And then there are more shy, ruling party members who would come out and vote for the impeachment. So I think, most likely, even though the ruling party this morning said that, OK, we'll participate in the voting.

But you know, the party rule, party opinion is that we will not impeach the president. But I think there will be rebel parliamentarians who will vote for the impeachment. So I think it is almost, I would say, more than 90 percent that the impeachment will process as it is all expected.

BRUNHUBER: OK. So more than 90 percent chance you think that he will be impeached.

So if he is impeached, take us through the process, what happens next?

CHOI: Well, then the parliament will submit the impeachment documents to the presidential office and the president will be suspended of his duty. And then the acting president will be given to the prime minister.

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Accordingly, he's the second in command in the government. So even though he's not elected official, he's a career government public servant. He's a seasoned public servant. So he knows the nuts and bolts in the government. So I think he will run the government very smoothly.

And then, the constitutional court has to rule that the president is unable to govern. So, you know, they have to rule for the impeachment in order for the president to be removed from the office. So that will take some time.

And right now we only have six justices in the constitutional court, which needs to have like nine.

And guess who is appointing the -- those three judges?

Supposedly the president is supposed to appoint these judges. But, because he's impeached, the acting president, who is the prime minister, he will be probably given to him to ratify these three judges for the constitutional court.

And then the court will decide within 180 days. We had two previous presidents impeached. The first one took about 60-something days. The second one took about 90-something days.

This one again, I don't know whether it's going to be two months or three months or even six months. But a lot of people speculate that it will be less -- it will be around 2-3 months.

BRUNHUBER: All right.

CHOI: So we are expecting a new (INAUDIBLE) elections.

BRUNHUBER: Listen, we're going to leave it there because we do have some news that we want to bring in. Kenneth Choi in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate it.

CHOI: No problem. Thank you.

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BRUNHUBER: All right.

And we have some breaking news for you. To announce this, I want to bring in Ivan Watson, live in Hong Kong.

So Ivan, you've been watching the vote now on impeachment in South Korea.

What can you tell us?

WATSON: Right.

Well, the national assembly in Korea has just voted to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol. The preliminary numbers suggest that 204 of the lawmakers voted in favor of impeachment. That is more than the 200-vote threshold that would have been needed for that to be approved. So now this historic moment has taken place just 1.5 weeks after

President Yoon made a short-lived attempt to impose martial law on the country, deployed soldiers and police to this same building, the national assembly, to try to stop lawmakers from gathering there.

And 1.5 weeks later, lawmakers, including, by my count, it would be at least 12 defectors from his own political party, the People Power Party, have now voted to impeach the president.

So he is facing now the consequences of what I think many of his critics in South Korea would call an unconstitutional power grab that threatened to overturn decades of civilian democratic governance.

And you're looking at live pictures in Seoul right now of demonstrators celebrating this moment. So just outside the compound of the national assembly, you have a massive crowd of protesters in favor of impeachment that are now celebrating.

And, Kim, what a transformation from the very same location and scene of a week ago, when a first attempt to impeach President Yoon failed, failed because his political party abstained from the vote and there weren't enough legislators to pass the impeachment.

And so in that case, the crowd was furious. And in fact, there were demonstrators sitting in front of the exits, different exits of the compound of the national assembly, preventing vehicles from being able to leave, as some of the protesters were chanting, "Stay" or "Go back into the chamber."

And that was reflected by a crowd inside the halls of the national assembly as well, that was waving signs calling for impeachment and were hurling abuse at lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party.

That scene, very different now. Just a week later, jubilation, as some Koreans by -- we don't really know the estimates now.

But by the account of our own reporters, a much larger pro-impeachment crowd than we even saw last week in freezing temperatures, who are now celebrating and waving flags at the news that President Yoon has been impeached. And according to Korean law now, he would be suspended of his powers.

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And he would have to go through a lengthy period, as we just heard from our last guest, until a constitutional court could potentially approve this measure. The prime minister will assume the powers of acting president now as a result of this historic move, this historic vote to impeach, that has just been passed by Korea's national assembly.

BRUNHUBER: Unbelievable. So history being made here. Ivan, again, the news President Yoon Suk-yeol has been impeached and by a wider margin than perhaps we might have expected. So as you said, Ivan, this still has to be ratified by the courts. And eventually this would trigger an election. I mean, it's hard to speculate now but any sense of what might happen?

Would the ruling party pay a price?

I mean, we see how much anger there is here in the live pictures on the streets of Seoul against the president.

WATSON: Well, I mean, it is worth noting that there is also a parallel demonstration taking place across the river in the same city, in front of Seoul city hall, where you have supporters of President Yoon who are denouncing the impeachment. So he does still have supporters.

But you know, after his attempt to impose martial law -- this was two Tuesday nights ago -- his already low approval ratings plummeted even further. And you had polls of Koreans surveyed, showing overwhelming majority in favor of his impeachment.

He is very damaged right now politically. As for the potential future of his political party, well, I interviewed the leader of the People Power Party.

And what was very clear was that he was trying to thread a needle, a show -- side with overwhelming public opinion in the country, calling for the suspension in the first days of President Yoon but stopping short at impeachment.

And then in the last couple of days, the People Power Party leader then said, well, now we need impeachment of the president because President Yoon, in a defiant speech on Thursday, while apologizing for his attempt to impose martial law, kind of defended it at the same time and continued to accuse the political opposition.

He claimed that they were siding with North Korea and blocking so- called democracy in South Korea. But a question of what would happen in an election, in an election, that's some time away right now. And what we're seeing here is that, again, by my count, at least 12 members of the president's own party voted to impeach him.

This is very different from what we've seen, for example, when there have been impeachment votes in the U.S. amid allegations of criminal behavior against a sitting president at that time.

In this case, you've had Korean society unite to say, this will not stand. And the charges against President Yoon are serious. They are of insurrection. That is what the national assembly has accused him of.

And meanwhile, the police have been searching presidential offices. They have detained his former defense minister, who tried to commit suicide, failed; in detention earlier this week. And there are -- there is talk of investigations into allegations of treason.

President Yoon is in a lot of trouble right now and South Korea has a proven track record not only of impeaching presidents -- previous presidents but also throwing them in jail after they're convicted. Kim. BRUNHUBER: Interesting. Once again, the news here, South Korean

President Yoon Suk-yeol impeached. We will continue to follow all of the ramifications that this will have in South Korea and beyond.

Ivan Watson in Hong Kong, thank you so much.

Demonstrators are crowding around parliament right now in the former Soviet nation of Georgia, which is set to vote for a new president. Have a look here.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These are live pictures from Tbilisi. Pro- European Union demonstrators have been venting their anger ever since the ruling Georgian Dream Party announced it would delay Georgia's bid to join the European Union.

Now the only candidate for the presidency is an anti-Western, right wing loyalist and former footballer, who's backed by the pro-Russian parliament. He supported a controversial foreign agents law earlier this year that was similar to a repressive Russian bill.

Now the crucial vote could trigger more protests. Pro-European Union activists have been demonstrating in the capital of Tbilisi and other cities for weeks, despite a violent police crackdown. More than 400 people have been arrested.

France has a new prime minister. Outgoing PM Michel Barnier introduced his replacement, Francois Bayrou.

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The centrist was just named as the nation's fourth PM this year by President Emmanuel Macron. Bayrou's predecessor lost a vote of non- confidence after proposing a budget that would have increased taxes. Parties on the Left and Right united to force him to resign.

Bayrou will try to rein in a deficit that's expected to mushroom to 6 percent of GDP by the close of the year. He says he knows how difficult the country's situation is and says he hopes to find a way to unite rather than divide people.

All right. Plenty more coming here on CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM. Back to our top story.

The South Korean parliament has voted to impeach the president. All right. I want to bring back now from Seoul, Kenneth Choi. He's the deputy managing editor of the "Chosun Ilbo."

Thanks for coming back here with us. So you predicted not long ago when we spoke that this would happen. So presumably for you, no surprise but still a monumental event for the country.

Your reaction?

CHOI: Well, actually you know, in a span of 25 years, Korea has impeached three presidents. I don't think any democratic state in the world has ever done that. And this shows that nobody is above the law in this country.

And if this president is ruled by the constitutional court, that he needs to be removed from the office, it will be the second president who's going to be removed from the office as a result of this impeachment.

And I think this shows that the Korean democracy is really ingrained in our society. And even though it's a disappointing -- the fact that we all have to go through another big political tussle. But I think, after this, Korea will be standing up again as a very solid democratic institution -- I mean, state in the world.

And we will continue to progress in the future.

BRUNHUBER: The constitutional court has blocked an impeachment before.

Could it happen again now?

Do you -- do you think it will?

CHOI: it could, because right now, we only have six judges in the constitutional court. So we probably need to have three more. There will be another tug of war between the opposition party and the ruling party.

But whatever it is, if, let's say, suppose the six only -- the six judges will rule on the -- on this impeachment, then all six has to agree. And if one of them disagrees with the ruling, then, you know, the impeachment will be going out the --

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CHOI: It will be all negated and the president will be back on as a president. So it all depends on how this whole process is going to take place. So there's still much of uncertainties, laying out in the next three, two months.

BRUNHUBER: Lots of uncertainties but no uncertainty for the people who we were just seeing there, live pictures of the people celebrating the fact that the president has been impeached.

You talked about the impressions of South Korea and sort of its standing and how this might reflect on that. So I want to explore that a little bit here.

One of the members of the PPP said he would vote for impeachment, quote, "for the sake of swift stabilization of people's livelihood, economy and diplomacy."

So I want to talk about those last two.

What are the effects here?

I mean, on the economy, there was -- there was so much at stake. It's Asia's fourth largest. Take me through what the considerations were there. And then, diplomatically, South Korea is such an important country, has such an important role in the region in terms of countering China, its alliance with the U.S.

So certainly there were plenty of things at stake here in terms of how it might shake the allies' faith in the country. Perhaps some of that reassured today.

CHOI: Well, economically, Korea is struggling right now.

And actually Korea is like 75 percent depending on trade. And when the president Trump is coming in, in January 20th, he has stated that he'll put tariffs all over the place. So that will be a very big uncertainty ahead of Korean economy.

So we have to -- I mean, somebody has to deal with this issue. But you know, without having a president, I'm not sure whether the acting president will have the mandate to deal with all these external uncertainties. So that's the number one issue right now that Korea faces economically.

I mean, diplomatic -- diplomatically, the president -- again, president Trump is coming in. He has mentioned that, he's going -- getting along very well with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. And South Korea is sort of the bedrock in the security in northeast Asia.

And right now, we are not so sure, if we don't have the president to negotiate with president Trump, to deal with this whole issue, then, again, the Korean diplomacy is -- are up in somewhere in the cloud and we are lost, will be lost in this region.

And all the diplomatic efforts for the past 2.5 years, getting along well with Japan and try to set up this trilateral U.S.-Korea-Japan relationships to deal with the free flow of navigation in the Pacific and so on, all these things will be put on hold.

And which, again, will put us on a back burner and the Korean diplomacy will be turmoil. So, for those two things, a lot of Koreans are worried about it.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. So a lot of turmoil and uncertainty. Again, our top story, South Korean President Yoon impeached. Really appreciate getting your response to this, Kenneth Choi in Seoul, South Korea. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

CHOI: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have plenty more when we come back. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Diplomats are gathering in Jordan right now ahead of a meeting to discuss Syria's future and Middle East stability.

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U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken will join representatives from the European Union, Turkiye and Arab nations at the summit. It's scheduled to begin about two hours from now.

On Friday, Blinken stopped in Baghdad and met with Iraq's prime minister. Now one example of how Syria is already affecting the nation, more than 2,000 Syrian soldiers who fled their country are staying in a tent city in Iraq. Blinken said he talked with the Iraqi leader about the importance of peace and freedom in Syria. Here he is.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We spent time talking about, understandably, the situation in Syria and the conviction of so many countries in the region and beyond, that, as Syria transitions from the Assad dictatorship to hopefully a democracy, it does so in a way that, of course, protects all of the minorities in Syria.

That produces an inclusive, nonsectarian government and does not become in any way a platform for terrorism.

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BRUNHUBER: There was at least one large explosion in Damascus Friday night. The CNN team says they heard the blast and the sound of jets flying overhead. Israel, Turkiye and the U.S. have all conducted recent airstrikes in Syria.

The search for answers continues as more drone sightings are reported near sensitive sites along the eastern coast of the U.S. Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan said he personally witnessed dozens of large drones above his home Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said some reports are cases of mistaken identity, echoing a similar comment from the FBI.

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ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We have not seen anything unusual. We have not seen any unusual activity. We know of no threat. We know of no nefarious activity.

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BRUNHUBER: The secretary also commented on calls made by president- elect Trump and others to shoot down mysterious drones over U.S. soil. He noted this is a complex and difficult task that's highly dangerous, pointing out different U.S. agencies have different authority in federal airspace.

Festive kayaks bedecked with Christmas lights illuminated central Copenhagen on Friday. Have a look.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Spectators gathered on streets and bridges to watch the 400 colorful boats glide through the canals of the Danish capital as the choir sang traditional yuletide melodies. Looks absolutely gorgeous.

The tradition dates back to the 19th century and celebrates Saint Lucia, referred to as the bearer of lights. And some paddlers even wore a traditional crown of fake candles, a symbol commonly associated with Lucia.

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BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber in Atlanta. "INSIDE AFRICA" is next. And then there's more CNN NEWSROOM in 30 minutes with Ben Hunt in London.