South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol Impeached after Martial Law Ploy

The Washington Post / Michelle Ye Hee Lee

13:12 JST, December 17, 2024

SEOUL – The South Korean National Assembly voted Saturday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, forcing him to immediately hand power over to the prime minister following his short-lived attempt this month to impose martial law.

The hundreds of thousands of South Koreans waiting outside the National Assembly, many singing along to K-pop-style songs with ad-libbed lyrics calling for Yoon’s departure, erupted into cheering and crying when the verdict was announced.

But South Korea now enters a prolonged period of uncertainty: The Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the impeachment charges, a process that could take up to six months. If the court decides the legislature’s decision is constitutional, Yoon will be removed from office and a new presidential election will be held within 60 days.

Saturday’s vote was the National Assembly’s second attempt to oust Yoon. He survived the opposition parties’ first impeachment effort on Dec. 7, after lawmakers from his conservative People Power Party boycotted the vote.

But Yoon’s refusal to resign, and his defiantly stated belief that he was right to declare martial law, appears to have convinced some lawmakers from his party to cross the aisle.

A total of 204 of the 300 lawmakers in the assembly voted in favor of the motion, the speaker of the assembly, Woo Won-shik, announced. They included 12 from the president’s party, helping the opposition parties surpass the two-thirds majority required to oust the president.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a career civil servant who holds the No. 2 position in government, will serve as interim president as South Korea enters a state of paralysis while the Constitutional Court deliberates on the impeachment charges.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said South Korea had “demonstrated its democratic resilience.”

“We’ve seen it follow peacefully a process laid out in its constitution, and we’re ready to work with President Han,” Blinken told reporters in Aqaba, Jordan, where he met Saturday with Arab foreign ministers to discuss developments in Syria. “Most important, we strongly support the Korean people.”

Han said after Saturday’s vote that he would seek to restore stability to state affairs. Still, he will be a caretaker, and the leadership vacuum coincides with the U.S. presidential transition and the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Analysts say this power vacuum at the helm of one of the United States’ key allies in Asia could put Seoul on weak footing with Washington and compromise its ability to swiftly respond to adjustments in foreign policy or trade. Trump has threatened to seek higher tariffs and has repeatedly suggested that Seoul should pay high sums for the 30,000-odd U.S. troops stationed on the Korean Peninsula.

It is unclear whether the Constitutional Court, which serves the role of the U.S. Senate in the American presidential impeachment process, will uphold the impeachment vote.

At least six members of the nine-judge court must vote to remove the president, but the court has three vacancies. Four of the six judges serving on the court were appointed by Yoon. The parliamentary speaker said Saturday night after the vote that the vacancies would be filled quickly.

In a statement issued after the impeachment vote, Yoon vowed to defend himself until the end.

“Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt,” Yoon said. “I will never give up.”

Political crisis began with martial law declaration

The political crisis, the worst since South Korea became a democracy in 1987, erupted when Yoon declared martial law late at night on Dec. 3, ostensibly to thwart “antistate” activities by the opposition, which controls the National Assembly.

He sent troops to the assembly in an unsuccessful attempt to stop lawmakers from entering the voting chamber and overturning his decree. An Army commander testified during a parliamentary hearing Tuesday that Yoon gave an order to “drag out” the lawmakers.

The lawmakers’ vote, combined with the crowds who gathered outside the National Assembly to call for democracy to be restored, caused Yoon to rescind the decree barely six hours later.

He is now under multiple investigations over his actions that night, including by the police, the anticorruption watchdog and the National Assembly.

The head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials said this week that he wouldn’t hesitate to have Yoon arrested if prosecutors found enough evidence to charge him with insurrection.

The president was banned from leaving the country while the investigations continue, and some of his closest advisers, including the now-former defense minister who encouraged him to declare martial law, have been arrested.

But despite mounting pressure even from within his party – its chairman, Han Dong-hoon, had called for the president’s powers to be revoked as quickly as possible – Yoon refused to resign.

“I will fight to the end,” Yoon said in a prerecorded address Thursday, adding that he stood by his actions and was prepared to defend them. It was only the second time he had appeared since his failed attempt to impose martial law.

Earlier Thursday, Han Dong-hoon made his clearest push yet for the president’s impeachment, saying it was the only effective way to remove Yoon from power.

Between the first and second impeachment votes, top officials testified at the National Assembly and shared the stunning details of Yoon’s attempted power grab, injecting momentum into the effort to impeach him.

Yoon is now the third president since South Korea became a democracy in 1987 to face impeachment proceedings. Park Geun-hye was impeached and removed from office in 2017 after a corruption scandal. In 2004, Roh Moo-hyun was impeached after charges of illegal campaigning but was reinstated after the Constitutional Court rejected the charges.

A long judicial process awaits

Hannah June Kim, a political scientist at Sogang University in Seoul, said Yoon’s impeachment will probably lead to prolonged political fights within his party, as People Power Party lawmakers who support Yoon will try to stop the court from upholding the impeachment charge.

Still, the impeachment will show the nation that “democracy continues to be defended and protected by the resilience and decisive actions of the Korean people,” she said.

Outside the assembly, parents with children, couples, groups of elderly residents and people of all ages sang and swung light sticks, making the demonstration feel more like a K-pop concert than a political protest. Activists and organizers delivered impassioned speeches calling for impeachment.

As the floor leader of the main opposition party read the text of Yoon’s martial law decree, the crowd went silent.

As the result of the vote was announced, many began crying and hugging each other.

“It was something I believe should never have happened and made me so unhappy,” said Lee Hee-soo, 60, of Gyeonggi province. “Now, I’m just so thrilled.”

Son Hye-min attended the demonstration with her husband and two children, a 2-year-old toddler and an 8-month-old baby. They took a selfie outside the National Assembly after impeachment passed.

“It’s a world where my babies will grow up in, and it has become an even better world now that he’s impeached,” said Son, 38, who also came in from Gyeonggi province, which encircles Seoul.

The crowd at the impeachment rallies has skewed younger than at typical political protests in recent years. South Koreans in their late teens and 20s brought glow sticks from K-pop concerts and joined older Koreans in standing up for their nation’s democracy.

The trend has been “remarkable” and an encouraging one that runs counter to the idea that the younger generation in South Korea is apathetic and disengaged, said Joan Cho, East Asian studies professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

“This level of engagement and commitment to democracy among the younger generation is a promising sign for the future of democracy in South Korea,” Cho said.

Yoon struggled from the outset

Yoon was elected in 2022 with the narrowest margin in South Korean democratic history and is about halfway through his five-year term.

Since taking office, Yoon has struggled with low approval ratings and has been unable – and unwilling, some analysts say – to expand support for his presidency in his deeply polarized country.

Yoon has faced repeated criticisms for his unpopular decisions as president. But his presidency has been mired in scandals involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee, including a controversy over accepting a Dior handbag from a Korean American pastor, allegedly in exchange for political favors. Prosecutors investigated but declined to charge her over the matter in October.

In recent weeks, there has been renewed scrutiny of Kim over her leaked messages with a pollster that suggested she exercised undue influence in recent national elections. This intensified the opposition’s attacks on Yoon and his government, leading to a standoff between progressive lawmakers and Yoon’s conservative executive branch over the legislative budget.

Yoon said he declared martial law because of his mounting frustration over the political gridlock in the National Assembly over issues including security threats from North Korea and budget cuts affecting drug-crimes enforcement.

He said Thursday that he had grown increasingly appalled at lawmakers’ opposition to investigating election machines, calling the computer systems “sloppy.” Yoon had been echoing claims of election fraud that had gained popularity through far-right YouTube channels.