Foreign News
South Korea’s Yoon focus of police ‘treason’ probe over martial law chaos
Police in South Korea have opened an investigation into President Yoon Suk-yeol for alleged “treason” related to his brief declaration of martial law this week, according to reports.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday that a team at the National Police Agency has been assigned to investigate the president, while allegations of treason have also been made against the country’s recently resigned Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, as well as army chief of staff General Park An-su and Interior Minister Lee Sang-min.
The four have been accused “of treason and other related charges for their roles in the declaration and subsequent lifting of martial law on Tuesday” night, the news agency reports.
One complaint for treason was filed against the president by a minor opposition party and a second was submitted by a group of 59 activists, Yonhap said.
Citing non-specific threats from “antistate forces” and obstructionist political opponents, President Yoon imposed martial law for about six hours late on Tuesday night before reversing course after parliament held a vote to oppose the move and people took to the streets in protest.
Yoon also faces an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday for his declaration of martial law.
The country’s courts and a government department that investigates corruption among high-ranking officials are also considering launching their own probes of the events, which resulted in armed South Korean troops storming the National Assembly compound onboard helicopters and smashing windows and doors to enter the building.
In a separate report, Yonhap said a prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office had issued a travel ban on South Korea’s former Defense Minister Kim, who resigned early on Thursday.
Kim, who is reported to have suggested the imposition of martial law to the president, is being investigated for “sedition” over his role in the incident, Yonhap said.
Yonhap also reports that “the prosecution is known to have banned other defendants from leaving the country besides” the former defence minister.
Earlier, Yoon’s office said the president had accepted the defence minister’s resignation and he would be replaced by South Korea’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Choi Byung-hyuk, a former four-star army general.
Legislators from the opposition Democratic Party plan to seek a vote in parliament to impeach Yoon on Saturday evening, a party spokesperson told reporters.
“The Yoon Suk-yeol regime’s declaration of emergency martial law caused great confusion and fear among our people,” Democratic Party MP Kim Seung-won told the National Assembly.
Yoon’s governing People Power Party is divided over the crisis but has said it would oppose the impeachment of the president, who has two years left in his five-year term.
The opposition Democratic Party needs at least eight of the 108 People Power Party’s legislators to back the impeachment bill for it to pass with a two-thirds majority of the 300-seat parliament.
If the impeachment bill passes, South Korea’s Constitutional Court will then decide whether to uphold the motion – a process that could take up to 180 days. If Yoon were to be suspended from exercising power, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would fill in as leader.
If Yoon resigns or is removed from office, a new election would be held within 60 days.
Yoon has been embraced by leaders in the West as a partner in the US-led effort to unify democracies against growing authoritarianism in China, Russia and elsewhere.
But he had caused unease among South Koreans by branding his critics as “communist totalitarian and antistate forces”.
In November, he denied wrongdoing in response to influence-peddling allegations against him and his wife and he has taken a hard line against labour unions.
[Aljazeera]
Thirteen soldiers serving with peacekeeping forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been killed in clashes with rebels from the M23 group.
The South African military said nine of its soldiers died helping to push back a rebel advance on the city of Goma, in eastern DR Congo, while three Malawians and a Uruguayan were also killed.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he had spoken to the leaders of both DR Congo and Rwanda amid global calls for the violence to end.
The United Nations is pulling all non-essential staff out of Goma – a city of more than one million people – as the fighting intensifies.
(BBC)
The Trump administration has fired at least a dozen federal watchdogs late on Friday evening, a possibly illegal move that could face court challenges.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the watchdog firings as a “chilling purge”. “These firings are Donald Trump’s way of telling us he is terrified of accountability and is hostile to facts and to transparency,” said Schumer, a Democrat from New York.
The White House has not confirmed the firings and did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Affected inspectors general were sent emails from the director of presidential personnel overnight on Friday telling them that “due to changing priorities, your position as inspector general… is terminated, effective immediately”, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
The group of dismissed watchdogs includes the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, and the inspector general of the Small Business Administration, CBS said.
There were competing lists of fired watchdogs circulating, according to the New York Times. Watchdogs at the departments of agriculture, commerce, defence, education, housing and urban development, interior, labor, transportation and veterans affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency were all reportedly considered.
It is unclear whom the Trump administration might pick to fill the newly vacant positions.
Congress created inspectors general in the wake of the Watergate scandal, as part of a wave of reforms intended to curb corruption, waste and fraud. The independent watchdogs – who work within federal agencies but are not controlled by the head of those agencies – are meant to serve as a guard against mismanagement and abuse of power.
Though they are presidential appointees, they are expected to be nonpartisan.
The firings may be in breach of a law that requires the White House to give Congress 30-day notice and case-specific information before dismissing a federal inspector general.
Hannibal Ware, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration and head of a council of the watchdog across agencies sent a letter to Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel suggesting the dismissals were invalid.
“I recommend that you reach out to White House your intended course of action,” Ware wrote. “At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed inspectors general.”
In a separate statement released on Saturday afternoon, Ware wrote that dismissals “inconsistent with the law” were a grave threat to to the independence of inspectors general.
“IGs [inspectors general] are not immune from removal,” he wrote. “However, the law must be followed to protect independent government oversight for America.”
Democrats were quick to criticise the president for the move.
Schumer said the move was a “preview of the lawless approach” Trump and his administration were taking.
Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, called the firings a “Friday night coup” and an “attack on transparency and accountability”.
He and 20 other Democratic members of congress wrote a letter directly to President Trump which expressed “grave concern” for the dismissals and urged him to reconsider.
“Your actions violate the law, attack our democracy, and undermine the safety of the American people,” the representatives wrote, a group that included Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Zoe Lofgren of California, and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.
Some Republican lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senator Susan Collins of Maine also expressed concern over the purge.
“I don’t understand why one would fire individuals whose mission it is to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Collins said at the Capitol on Saturday. “I don’t understand it.”
[BBC]
The US State Department has issued a halt to all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, according to an internal memo sent to officials and US embassies abroad.
The leaked notice follows President Trump’s executive order issued on Monday for a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance pending a review of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy.
The United States is the world’s biggest international aid donor spending $68bn in 2023 according to government figures, The State Department notice appears to affect everything from development assistance to military aid.
It makes exceptions only for emergency food aid and for military funding for Israel and Egypt. The leaked memo’s contents have been confirmed by the BBC.
“No new funds shall be obligated for new awards or extensions of existing awards until each proposed new award or extension has been reviewed and approved,” says the memo to staff.
It adds that US officials “shall immediately issue stop-work orders, consistent with the terms of the relevant award, until such time as the secretary shall determine, following a review.”
It also orders a wide scale review of all foreign assistance to be completed within 85 days to ensure the aid adheres to President Trump’s foreign policy goals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio – the US’s top diplomat – has previously stated that all US spending abroad should take place only if it makes America “stronger”, “safer” or “more prosperous”.
One former senior State Department official told the BBC the notice meant a “potentially huge” impact on foreign aid programmes funded by the US.
“One can imagine, for example, the humanitarian de-mining programmes around the world suddenly being told stop work. That’s a pretty big deal,” said Josh Paul, who oversaw Congressional relations on weapons transfers at the State Department until late 2023.
Dave Harden, a former US Agency of International Aid (USAID) mission director in the Middle East, told the BBC the move was “very significant”, saying it could see humanitarian and development programmes funded by the US around the world being immediately suspended, while the review is carried out.
He said it could affect a wide range of critical development projects including water, sanitation and shelter.
“The employees of the implementing partner or the [non-governmental organisation] would be able to be paid, but actual assistance, I think, needs to be halted,” said Mr Harden.
“I have gone through assistance suspensions many times when I was the West Bank and Gaza mission director, but that was specific to that account. This is global,” he said.
“Not only does it pause assistance, but it puts a ‘stop work’ order in existing contracts that are already funded and underway. It’s extremely broad,” he added.
The AFP news agency reported the funding freeze could also potentially affect Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in weapons under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
Rubio’s memo, justifying the freeze, said it was impossible for the new administration to assess whether existing foreign aid commitments “are not duplicated, are effective and are consistent with President Trump’s foreign policy”.
Rubio has issued a waiver for emergency food assistance, according to the memo.
This comes amid a surge of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, and several other hunger crises around the world, including Sudan.
The memo also said waivers have so far been approved by Rubio for “foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and administrative expenses, including salaries, necessary to administer foreign military financing”.
The State Department has been approached for comment.
(BBC)
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