South Korea’s opposition parties on Thursday submitted a motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his shocking move to impose a short-lived martial law that has embroiled the country in political chaos.
The martial law declaration announced by Yoon late Tuesday lasted about six hours in total, after lawmakers managed to get into the National Assembly building past heavily armed troops and voted unanimously to strike the order down. The decree, which Yoon claimed was necessary to eliminate “anti-state” forces in the opposition that controls parliament, was criticized by the president’s allies and foes alike and drew hundreds of protesters into the streets overnight.
It was not immediately clear if any lawmakers from Yoon’s ruling party would support the impeachment vote, which could be put to a vote as early as Friday. However, the head of the People’s Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, told reporters he had requested Yoon leave the party and fire Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who Han said first proposed the martial law order.
Kim, who faced a separate impeachment effort, offered to resign and apologized to the country “for all the turmoil caused” in a statement. The rest of Yoon’s cabinet and his senior policy advisors, including the president’s chief of staff, all resigned as well.
The growing fallout reflected the overwhelming public anger toward Yoon’s decision, which has been described as a poorly-thought-out stunt by independent analysts.
“This was a massive political miscalculation, and it exponentially compounded his problems with the political opposition and with large segments of the population,” former Canadian diplomat and Canadian Global Affairs Institute fellow James Trottier told Global News.
Candlelight vigils were held across the country calling for Yoon’s removal from office and arrest.
“Although martial law has been extinguished … the mass demonstrations (and) protests will continue,” Hyung-Gu Lynn, a professor of Asian studies and the AECL/KEPCO Chair in Korean Research at the University of British Columbia, said in an email.
“It’s very difficult to see Yoon remain in office to see out his term, given that this latest act has stamped him as less of a lame duck and more of an entirely incompetent and unstable figure.”
How impeachment might play out
Impeaching Yoon would require support from 200 of the National Assembly’s 300 members. The Democratic Party and the five other small opposition parties, who jointly submitted the impeachment motion, together have 192 seats.
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The rejection of Yoon’s martial law declaration in a 190-0 vote included the votes of 18 lawmakers from Yoon’s ruling People Power Party, according to National Assembly officials — suggesting there could be some support for impeachment.
The impeachment motion was signed by 190 opposition lawmakers and one independent lawmaker, with no support from any ruling party lawmakers, according to the Yonhap news agency. No one from the ruling party was present for the motion’s introduction in parliament.
Reuters reported the People’s Power Party vowed to oppose the motion. But Yoon’s future in the party itself appeared in doubt after Han, the party leader, said he had delivered a request to the prime minister for Yoon to defect.
If the vote to impeach Yoon is successful, at least six justices of the nine-member Constitutional Court would have to endorse it to remove him from office. There are currently three vacancies, however, meaning the remaining justices would have to vote unanimously in favour for the motion to succeed.
During the court’s deliberation, Yoon would be suspended from exercising power and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would fill in as leader.
A presidential election would have to be held within 60 days if the court endorses the impeachment or if Yoon resigns.
Concerns over democracy
Yoon told the nation in a televised speech late on Tuesday that martial law was needed to defend the country from pro-North Korean anti-state forces within the opposition, and protect the free constitutional order, although he cited no specific threats to the country.
Experts, as well as presidential officials who spoke to the Associated Press and Yonhap, say the move was instead meant to break up legislative roadblocks in parliament, where the majority opposition has stalled Yoon’s agenda and budget proposals and also moved to investigate the president’s aides and wife for alleged corruption.
“Ultimately, President Yoon seemed to believe that the only way around this impasse was to declare martial law, rather than to engage in the democratic process of negotiating with his political opponents,” said Troy Stangarone, director of the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.
Under South Korea’s constitution, the president can declare martial law during “wartime, war-like situations or other comparable national emergency states” that require the use of military force to restrict the freedom of press, assembly and other rights to maintain order.
Many observers reacting to the declaration have said there’s no evidence that South Korea is currently in such a state.
“(Yoon’s allegations) didn’t really fly with the population or the political class,” Trottier said. “This is a domestic political earthquake in South Korea.”
Lynn, the University of British Columbia professor, said Yoon’s accusations are “entirely groundless” and that he “needed some excuse, however flimsy, to declare martial law.”
Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party’s floor leader, called for Yoon to be immediately investigated on charges of rebellion over the way he deployed troops to the parliament. While the president mostly enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office, the protection does not extend to alleged rebellion or treason.
Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration welcomed Yoon’s revocation of martial law and pointed to South Korea as a democratic “success story” despite this week’s developments.
“I think Korea is one of the most powerful stories in the world about the emergence of democracy and democratic resilience, and we’ll continue to look to Korea to set that example,” he told reporters.
Others see it differently.
“South Korea is a rough and tumble democracy,” Stangarone said.
Yoon’s announcement was the first martial law declaration since 1980, when military officers forced then-president Choi Kyu-hah to crush calls for the restoration of democratic government. Martial law was declared more than a dozen times between then and the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948.
Since South Korea’s democratization in the late 1980s, two presidents have been impeached and three of the last four have been arrested on corruption and abuse of power charges. Yoon’s role as prosecutor general in the indictment and conviction of then-president Park Geun-hye in 2018 catapulted him to fame that he rode to his presidential nomination in the 2022 election. Growing scandals and allegations while in office have since made Yoon deeply unpopular in opinion polls.
“I think it’s clear in South Korea that if you violate the law as president, there will be repercussions,” Stangarone said.
“Going forward, especially after what Yoon has done, it will be important for any future presidential candidates to make sure that they remain within their constitutional bounds.”
—With files from the Associated Press and Reuters
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