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By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – Senior aides to indicted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol offered his resignation en masse on Wednesday, a day after his office expressed regret over incumbent President Choi Sang-mok’s approval of two new court judges , which will decide Yoon’s fate.
Yoon’s chief of staff, policy chief, national security adviser and special adviser on foreign affairs and security and all other senior secretaries have tendered their resignations, his office said in a statement, without elaborating.
Choi said he would not accept her resignation because the priority now was to focus on improving the economy and stabilizing state affairs, his office said.
The aides had repeatedly expressed their intention to resign after Yoon’s failed attempt to declare martial law on Dec. 3, but their resignations were not accepted, said a presidential official who did not want to be named for political reasons.
The official said senior secretaries have supported Choi since he took over as acting president. Two other officials said aides do not take part in day-to-day government operations but are required to report to Choi and attend meetings as needed.
The aides’ latest offer came a day after Choi’s surprise agreement to fill two vacancies on the Constitutional Court, which has jurisdiction over Yoon’s impeachment trial.
This brought the total number of judges on the nine-member court to eight. Any decision in the Yoon case requires the approval of at least six judges.
Yoon’s ruling People Power Party criticized Choi’s decision as “dogmatic” and without sufficient consultation.
Finance Minister Choi assumed the role of acting president on Friday following the ouster of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been acting president since Dec. 14, when Yoon was suspended from power.
Yoon is under investigation over allegations that he led an insurrection, and a district court in Seoul approved his arrest on Tuesday, the first for a sitting president.
