South Korea's National Assembly has passed a motion seeking parliamentary consent for the potential arrest of the leader of the main opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, on breach of trust and other charges.

The assembly passed the motion during a plenary session on Thursday. A slim majority of the 295 lawmakers voted to lift arrest immunity for Lee, who heads the Democratic Party.

The country's prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for Lee on breach of trust and other charges in connection with a land development project while he was a city mayor, as well as his alleged involvement in a company's illegal cash remittances to North Korea.

By law, sitting lawmakers are immune from arrest while parliament is in session, and can only be arrested with the consent of the National Assembly.

It is now up to a court to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Lee.

In February, an attempt by prosecutors to arrest Lee on allegations of corruption in two separate cases fell through after the National Assembly voted down their request.

This time, more lawmakers from his Democratic Party voted to consent to Lee's potential arrest, after he indicated he would give up the privilege of arrest immunity.

Lee has been hospitalized since Monday and did not attend Thursday's session.

His health deteriorated after he began a hunger strike last month to protest the policies of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The opposition-controlled National Assembly on Thursday also passed another motion calling for the dismissal of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. The motion is not legally binding, and Yoon is expected to keep Han in his post.