SEOUL, March 12 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea's National Assembly passed an impeachment bill against President Roh Moo-hyun on Friday, announced National Assembly Speaker Park Kwan-yong.

    A total of 195 lawmakers of the 271-member parliament attended the ballot, with 193 voting for and the two others against.

    According to rules, the bill can become true after two thirds of the 271 lawmakers vote for it.

    South Korean Prime Minister Goh Kun will take over the presidential responsibility until the Constitutional Court makes afinal decision within six months on whether Roh must step down.

    Immediately after the parliamentary vote, Prime Minister Goh called an emergency meeting of security-related ministers.

South Korea's National Assembly speaker Park Kwan-yong announced that impeachment bill against President Roh Moo-hyun was passed on Friday.

    With the passage of the bill, Roh's powers have been suspended as the head of state, supreme commander of the Army, president of Cabinet meetings and coordinator of state affairs.

    Goh will take over the job of commanding the Army and can declare war, sign treaties, proclaim martial law, grant amnesty and receive foreign envoys.

    Roh, however, will be allowed to reside in the presidential residence under the protection of presidential secret service agents until the Constitutional Court issues a final ruling.

    A former human rights lawyer, Roh was elected in December 2002 to a five-year term on a pledge of clean politics, but several of his key aides have been arrested on charges of receiving illegal funds to finance his campaign.

    His first 13 months in office were also marred by political instability caused by his own policy flaps and tension with a hostile Assembly. The pro-government ruling Uri Party has only 47 members in the 271-member single-chamber legislature.

    With parliamentary elections less than five weeks away, the confrontation burst into the open with the impeachment motion.

    The parliament approved the impeachment bill on Roh's illegal electioneering and incompetence charges, following hours of scuffles and dramatic protests, including a man who set himself onfire.

    Live television footage showed huddles of lawmakers crushed behind the podium as security officers dragged out screaming pro-Roh Uri Party members one by one.

    The voting took place while pro-Roh lawmakers who earlier tried to block the vote were barred from entering the chamber by National Assembly security officers.

    Lawmakers loyal to Roh had planned to thwart debate and stall for time, hoping that the impeachment motion would automatically expire according to the sunset clause on Friday evening.

    It is stipulated that if the National Assembly had failed to act on the bill by Friday evening, it would have automatically died.

    Dozens of pro-Roh Uri Party members had camped out around the podium overnight after South Korea's two main opposition parties first tried to call a vote on Thursday but were blocked.

    A 20-minute scuffle took place earlier Friday when about 20 opposition legislators stormed the National Assembly hall to try to remove their rivals.

    Later, about 200 Roh supporters briefly exchanged punches with riot police, who blocked them from marching on the National Assembly building. They chanted, "Let's block impeachment!"

    Roh later apologized for the chaos and urged calm.

    On Thursday, a Roh supporter set himself on fire outside parliament, shouting "Let's block impeachment!"

    Roh has yet to apologize for the main point of the impeachment attempt: accusations that he broke election laws by stumping for the Uri Party in the upcoming April 15 parliamentary campaign.

    Roh does not belong to a party, but has said he wants to join Uri.

    The National Elections Commission ruled last week that Roh had engaged in illegal electioneering, but that the breach was minor, not warranting criminal charges.

    Opposition lawmakers also charged Roh with incompetence at a time the country is trying to balance tensions over the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula with a fragile economic recovery. Enditem