On 14 December the National Assembly passed the bill to impeach Yoon Seok-yul. This is a victory for the people and a victory for democracy. It is natural that the rigorous investigation of the perpetrators of the rebellion should be speeded up and the deliberations of the Constitutional Court should not be delayed. But this should not be the end of the story of this struggle for civil democracy. We, the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU), hereby make the following statements to the ruling and opposition parties and the government.

The government should read the minds of the people and clean up the mess. It is an academic conventional wisdom that the acting system is only a passive authority to maintain the status quo. If the government expands the powers of the acting president and uses the veto to block the implementation of various reforms, it will be going against the will of the workers and citizens who demanded Yoon's resignation and will itself be an extension of the chaos. In addition, the retrograde reform policies and vicious directives that have supported Yoon's tyranny must be abolished as soon as possible and the state affair that has been sailing in the wrong direction must be stopped.

The Democratic Party must prove itself without complacency. The outcry of the people gathered in front of the National Assembly did not end with the impeachment of Yoon Seok-yul. There were speeches and remarks from citizens who said that they had come to the National Assembly because they were struggling to make ends meet, wanted to work without dying, wanted to be free from discrimination, wanted to regain their basic rights, and wanted to ensure their lives and safety. The Democratic Party, which is in the majority, should not be content with passing the impeachment motion, but should immediately take steps to enact reforms that reflect the aspirations of the people. Bear in mind that if the Democratic Party chooses the path of right-wing or conservatism out of a misplaced sense of responsibility, it will be admitting that it is one of the 'Yoon Seok-yuls of our society.'

The People Power Party must be quietly dismantled. The party that advocates insurrection is the party of insurrection. A party that abandons the people for its own interests is not a democratic party. A party that tries to curse those who voted for impeachment even after impeachment is not a healthy political force. There is no place for the People's Power Party in Korean society. It is right to dissolve itself before it is exposed to even worse conditions.

Since the treacherous coup, the KPTU has been fighting with all its strength, including the strikes of the Korean Railway Workers' Union and the Education Support Workers Solidarity Division, and the mobilisation of 10,000 members of TruckSol. In the process, we have heard the voices of countless workers and citizens and confirmed once again that there is still much to fight for, so we will not stop. We will continue to use the impeachment bill as a starting point for our struggle, and we will organise a wider and bigger struggle for the extension of quality public services and workers' rights, and for state accountability to guarantee these rights.

 15 December 2024

Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union