SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s party vowed Thursday to resist efforts to impeach him over his failed attempt to impose martial law in the East Asian democracy, as opposition lawmakers said they would override on Saturday vote on the application.

The timing of the vote was announced as Yoon accepted the resignation of his Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who played a key role in the chaotic six-hour martial law period that began late Tuesday local time and ended Wednesday morning.

Choi Byung-hyuk, a retired four-star army general and current South Korean ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was named Kim’s successor.

“He is a trusted member of the military and a man of principles,” Chung Jin-seok, Yoon’s chief of staff, told reporters.

Kim submitted his resignation on Wednesday, saying the responsibility for the debacle rested “with me alone.”

“All actions taken by all military soldiers in connection with the martial law state of emergency followed my orders and instructions, and therefore I bear full responsibility for them,” he said in a statement.

He did not directly address whether emergency martial law was his idea, as opposition lawmakers and South Korean media have claimed.

The National Office of Investigation said Thursday that it had ordered a foreign travel ban on Kim, who could face insurrection charges, after opposition lawmakers suggested he might try to flee the country.

Yoon’s office said Wednesday that his chief of staff and all senior presidential secretaries had also tendered their resignations. But it defended its declaration of martial law, South Korea’s first since 1980, as necessary given a standoff with opposition lawmakers that Yoon said had paralyzed the government.

The declaration of martial law banned all political activity and censored the media, sparking immediate opposition from a public that had lived under military-authoritarian rule for decades before South Korea became a vibrant democracy and the world’s 10th largest economy.

Yoon, 63, revoked the order after lawmakers defied a security cordon to enter the National Assembly in Seoul, the South Korean capital, where they voted unanimously to reject it. The demonstrators also arrived in front of the parliament, where there were some clashes with the security forces.

He has not appeared in public since announcing the order in a surprise late-night TV address on Tuesday.

Lifting the order did little to dissipate public shock and anger. On Wednesday evening, demonstrators held a candlelight vigil in downtown Seoul, marching against Yoon and calling on him to resign.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Party, said Thursday local time that lawmakers would vote on the impeachment motion against Yoon at around 7 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) on Saturday. It was unclear whether MPs from Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) would vote against the motion or simply not show up to vote.

A total of 191 lawmakers representing six opposition parties and one independent lawmaker filed charges against Yoon on Wednesday. A two-thirds majority in the unicameral National Assembly is required to pass the motion.

Although PPP leaders rejected Yoon’s declaration of martial law and called on him to leave the party, they said the party opposed the impeachment motion. The opposition bloc has 192 seats, just under two-thirds of the 300-member legislature, meaning the motion could fail unless several PPP MPs break with their party and support it.

Opposition MPs say that if the motion is not passed the first time, they will keep trying until Yoon is charged. If the motion is accepted, the Constitutional Court would then hold a hearing to decide whether to confirm the impeachment, with a decision required within 180 days.

Although Yoon would remain at the presidential residence, his powers would be temporarily transferred to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo until the court rendered its verdict.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Wednesday that Yoon took a “heavy view” of his decision to declare martial law and that everyone seemed to be “deeply surprised” by the move.

He said the fact that progressives and conservatives quickly united in opposition to the order despite deep political divisions was evidence of the strength of South Korea’s democracy.

“This is a powerful symbol that people were willing to speak out and make it clear that this was a deeply illegitimate process and that it would reflect the will of the people,” he said at a Washington event organized by Aspen’s Strategic Forum, according to Reuters.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, acknowledged that the Biden administration did not know about Yoon’s announcement in advance, but rejected the idea that it was an intelligence failure.

“We are certainly not routinely informed of every decision that a partner makes at any given time anywhere in the world,” he said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.

“It is now important that this process takes place peacefully and in accordance with the constitution and the rule of law,” he added.

Stella Kim reported from Seoul and Jennifer Jett from Hong Kong.