President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a mental health committee meeting in Gwangjin District, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing increasing impeachment calls on the National Assembly's public petition website, with nearly 700,000 users concurring with a post claiming that Yoon should be impeached for "the omnishambles that South Korea is facing."

The petition, which calls for the Assembly to table an impeachment bill for Yoon, gained approvals from 695,595 as of 11:20 a.m., Sunday, just seven days after it secured 230,000 approvals on June 23. Users have been queuing throughout the weekend, as around 7,000 of them were simultaneously attempting to enter the website, resulting in delayed access for about 20 minutes to over an hour.

This screen capture of the National Assembly's online petition website shows 6,216 users queuing to enter the website due to the rapid increase of simultaneous access, as of 11:20 a.m., Sunday. Captured from National Assembly's online petition website

A National Assembly committee is obliged to review a petition that gains more than 50,000 approvals in 30 days after being uploaded on the website. Due to this, the petition was already handed over to the Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on June 24.

The post, which was first uploaded on June 20, claimed that South Korea is facing an "omnishambles after President Yoon's inauguration," citing the heightening tensions between the two Koreas, Yoon's vetoes on special counsel probes on major political suspicions and the worsening economic environment.

The petitioner claimed Yoon has violated laws and breached his duties by affecting the military's investigation into the death of a marine, condoning controversies and allegations surrounding first lady Kim Keon Hee such as her controversial acceptance of a luxurious handbag from a pastor, escalating the risks of a war with North Korea, employing pro-Japan resolutions on the forced labor issue, and allowing Tokyo to release wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

This screen capture of the National Assembly's online petition website shows an online petition calling for the National Assembly to table a bill on President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment. As of 11:20 a.m. Sunday, the petition gained 695,595 people's approvals. Captured from National Assembly's online petition website

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), which holds an Assembly majority and controls the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, is taking a prudent approach toward the call for an impeachment.

"We know that there should be an answer soon, but we are not looking into this as an official agenda," DPK spokesperson Rep. Kang Yu-jung told reporters, Sunday. "As soon as we speak about impeachment, it becomes an actionable agenda, so we are not currently focusing on or responding to that issue."

However, some hardline lawmakers are placing a greater emphasis on the petition.

"The petition gained 680,000 approvals in just 10 days, and it was already passed over to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which is headed by (DPK's) Rep. Jung Chung-rae," DPK Rep. Choi Min-hee wrote on Facebook. "The committee will review whether this will be tabled at an Assembly plenary session."

Rep. Hwang Un-ha, floor leader of the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, also wrote on Facebook that the public was shocked by the fact that the president was entertaining the idea that the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush was manipulated, which is "a conspiracy theory floated only by far-right YouTubers."

"The public outcry is massive and the petition will soon secure more than one million approvals, and potentially reaching ten million in the near future."

Copies of former National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo's memoir are on display at Kyobo Book Center in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap

Hwang was referring to a recent controversy over Yoon's past remarks on the Itaewon crowd crush that killed 159 people, who were reveling in Halloween festivities in Seoul's Itaewon on Oct. 29, 2022.

In his memoir which was published recently, former National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo, claimed that the president said in a one-on-one meeting on Dec. 5, 2022, that the tragedy "could have been orchestrated and manipulated by certain forces."

Rep. Park Hong-keun, who was DPK floor leader at the time, also wrote on Facebook that he heard, from the former speaker, that Yoon said he "does not understand why there was such a crowd in Itaewon (on the night of the tragedy) and there are suspicions that left-leaning media outlets like MBC, KBS and JTBC encouraged crowds to gather there days before the incident."

Park continued that Yoon said he suspects that "the incident might not be an accident, but rather a criminal act orchestrated by certain groups or individuals" and "if the safety minister resigns before clarifying the suspicions, the government may end up being played by the leftists, so the government should have the minister take political and moral responsibility after the investigation is completed."

The presidential office said in a statement that "it is deplorable that a former National Assembly speaker has distorted and revealed a private conversation with the president" and "President Yoon has repeatedly instructed government agencies to investigate various suspicions raised by the media, and he specifically expressed doubts over why the traffic authority did not open even one lane, which could have prevented the accident."

After the incident, Yoon faced mounting calls to dismiss Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min in order to take responsibility for the tragedy. The president refused, and the Assembly passed a bill for the minister's impeachment, which was later rejected by the Constitutional Court.

Former Speaker Kim on Friday expressed his regrets for "causing social controversies" and he was "able to understand the president's hardships in considering various situations comprehensively to find the truth behind the tragedy," but did not mention anything else regarding the authenticity of Yoon's remarks.

President Yoon Suk Yeol pats Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min on the arm before boarding the presidential jet at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Dec. 11, 2023. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon

Dealing an additional blow to the president, Jin Soo-hee, a former lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), claimed in a radio interview with broadcaster CBS on Friday that the then-head of the PPP's Yeouido Institute, a think tank, was sacked after Yoon became outraged over the institute's report that suggested that the minister be replaced.

Kim Yong-tae, the head of the Yeouido Institute at the time, denied the allegation in a Facebook post, but the DPK retorted with, "the president was obsessed with a conspiracy theory, rather than concentrating efforts to prevent similar accidents."

"The public finally realized that the president's irrational behaviors stem from a flawed mindset. Even a former ruling party lawmaker pleaded (with Yoon) to, ‘Please stop watching far-right YouTube channels,'" DPK spokesperson Kang said. "How deeply have the claims and conspiracy theories of far-right YouTubers affected the Yoon administration?"