How will doctor-turned-lawmakers in the ruling party vote this time?

The political landscape is shifting ahead of the second impeachment vote against President Yoon Suk Yeol, scheduled for Saturday this week.

After Han Dong-hoon, leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), switched his position back to favoring impeachment, pro-Han lawmakers have begun to join the ranks of those in favor.

The medical community demands that PPP lawmakers who are doctors attend the plenary session and vote in favor of impeachment. Reps. Suh Myung-ok, Ahn Cheol-soo, Ihn Yo-han, and Han Ji-ah are doctors. Only Ahn voted in favor of the first impeachment motion on Saturday last week.

The National Assembly will hold a plenary session on Saturday to vote on the impeachment bills introduced by the six opposition parties, including the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). The first impeachment bill was scrapped due to a lack of quorum. At the time, ruling PPP lawmakers attended the session only to vote down a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate first lady Kim Keon Hee and left the hall en masse.

Rep. Ahn was the only ruling party legislator who stayed until the end. Later, Reps. Kim Yea-ji and Kim Sang-wook returned to vote.

The situation changed dramatically ahead of the second vote. After President Yoon delivered a public address on Thursday emphasizing the legitimacy of declaring martial law, Han switched to a pro-impeachment stance, and pro-Han lawmakers began expressing their support for impeachment. Voters’ criticism of the PPP also affected their switches of stance.

Rep. Han, a rehabilitation medicine specialist, expressed her support for impeachment on social media.

“The president’s future is not his own choice, but the people’s choice, and our party must follow the people’s choice,” Han said. “I will participate in the vote this Saturday (Dec. 14) to correct it.” Han was absent from the first impeachment vote.

Rep. Ihn, a family medicine doctor, and Rep. Suh, a radiologist, have not expressed their positions. Rep. Ihn is a pro-Yoon lawmaker and a member of the Supreme Committee of the PPP.

“The president's feelings were not understood more than they were understood, but I want us to remember that the opposition has been despicably pushing the president and his family with special prosecutors and impeachment,” Ihn said at the Supreme Committee meeting on Thursday last week. This was the first meeting of the PPP since Yoon declared emergency martial law at 10:23 p.m. on Dec. 3 and lifted it at 1:01 a.m. the following day at the National Assembly.

A lot has been buried because of his extreme behavior. Still, we shouldn't forget that the president has met with more than 200 heads of state and worked like a corporate salesman, Rep. Ihn added.

The medical community appealed to the physician-turned-PPP lawmakers to vote in favor of the second impeachment motion. The Medical Professors Association of Korea (MPAK)’s Emergency Committee stated on Thursday.

“We hope that the bill to impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, the dictator who plotted the insurgency, will be passed this Saturday,” it said, urging Reps. Suh, Ihn, and Han, who missed the first impeachment vote, participated in the impeachment vote by all means and supported the impeachment of Yoon, who “spearheaded the insurgency and threatened to execute doctors and medical personnel.”

On Friday, seven PPP lawmakers expressed their positions in favor of impeachment. In addition to Ahn and Han, Reps. Kim Yea-ji, Kim Sang-wook, Cho Kyoung-tae, Kim Jae-seob, and Jin Jong-oh have said they will vote in favor of impeachment.

For an impeachment motion to pass the National Assembly, 200 or more lawmakers must vote in favor. In addition to 192 opposition lawmakers, at least eight lawmakers from the ruling party must vote to pass it.

Meanwhile, the Rebuilding Korea Party said it will not reduce the number of votes in favor of the impeachment bill in the plenary session on Saturday, saying that Paik Sun-hee, a professor at Seoul Theological Seminary, will succeed Rep. Cho Kuk as a proportional representative. Cho was sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court on Friday for allegedly cheating on his children's entrance exams and ignoring the presidential office’s inspections.