Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok became on Friday South Korea's second acting president in two weeks, as lawmakers voted to impeach the current acting leader, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, fuelling political uncertainty in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

South Korea's National Assembly impeached the country's acting president, Han Duck-soo, on Friday, marking the second time in December that it has chosen to remove the country's leader.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was impeached on Friday as South Korea's acting president, is a career technocrat whose wide-ranging experience and reputation for rationality failed to shield him from growing political turmoil.