South Korea’s president defends interim martial law, rejecting investigation into his actions

South Korea’s president defended his martial law decision as an executive act and denied charges of treason in a statement Thursday, suggesting he has no intention of resigning and rejecting efforts to impeach him and an investigation into last week’s action.

Yoon Suk Yeol’s statement on television on Thursday came hours before the opposition Democratic Party submitted a new motion to impeach Yoon. The opposition party plans to put the proposal to the floor this Saturday.

Its previous efforts to impeach Yoon failed last Saturday, when ruling party lawmakers boycotted the vote in the National Assembly.

Yoon’s Dec. announcement. 3 of the martial law caused a political upheaval and protests calling for his dismissal.

“I will fight to the end, to prevent the armed forces and gangs that have been responsible for paralyzing the country’s government and disrupting the country’s constitutional order while threatening the future of the Republic of Korea,” said Yoon.

Yoon said his introduction of martial law was aimed at protecting liberal democracy and constitutional order in the face of the liberal opposition, which he said threatened the constitution.

The law was an act of governance that could not be investigated, he said, and it did not amount to treason.