People shout slogans during a rally calling for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to step down near the Constitutional Court in Seoul on April 4.Lee Jin-man/The Associated Press
The South Korean Constitutional Court on Friday unanimously upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, removing him from office and ending months of uncertainty in the East Asian nation after a December declaration of martial law by Mr. Yoon plunged it into political chaos.
Reading the court’s opinion, acting chief justice Moon Hyung-bae said Mr. Yoon had violated the basic rights of the South Korean people and inflicted serious damage to the republic’s democratic stability.
A conservative former prosecutor, Mr. Yoon declared military rule late in the evening of Dec. 3, describing opposition lawmakers – who had blocked his agenda and launched corruption investigations into top ministers and Mr. Yoon’s wife – as “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces who are plundering the freedom and happiness of our citizens.” He ordered troops to the National Assembly, where senior officers say they were given orders to arrest top lawmakers and prevent them from gathering.
But communication delays and confusion in the chain of command gave both opposition and ruling party lawmakers enough time to call a vote in the Assembly and unanimously overturn Mr. Yoon’s edict, ending martial law just six hours after it was declared.
Weeks later, with Mr. Yoon resisting a growing clamour for his resignation, members of his own party broke with the President to support his impeachment, throwing the case to the Constitutional Court for a final decision.
Mr. Yoon’s removal required the support of six of the eight justices currently on the court, and the long delay in reaching a verdict had led to growing tension in South Korea, with regular protests in Seoul and other major cities both in support of and against Mr. Yoon’s impeachment.
In the end, however, Friday’s verdict was unanimous. Justices dismissed Mr. Yoon’s claims that gridlock in parliament rose to the level of a national emergency, saying he had overstepped in his role as commander-in-chief and violated the country’s “constitutional order.”
“The negative effects on the constitutional order and the repercussions from the defendant’s violations of the law are grave, making the benefits of protecting the Constitution by dismissing the defendant larger than the national losses from dismissing the President by an overwhelming degree,” Mr. Moon said, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Mr. Yoon’s removal means a snap presidential election must be held within 60 days, with the opposition Democratic Party – which described Friday’s verdict as a “victory for the people” – widely expected to win.
As well as trying to tamp down bitter political divisions between left and right that the martial law declaration has exacerbated, South Korea’s next president will also face the unenviable task of trying to negotiate tariff relief with Washington.
South Korea was hit with new tariffs of 25 per cent on Wednesday, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” measures, which have roiled the global economy. The levies are on top of existing tariffs on automobiles, which had sent the share prices of top South Korean carmakers plunging.
Mr. Yoon is the second conservative South Korean president to be impeached in a row, after Park Geun-hye’s removal on corruption charges in 2017, and the shortest-serving elected leader in the country’s history, having spent 949 days in power.
Like Ms. Park, who was later jailed, Mr. Yoon also faces a separate criminal probe that has already snared several top ministers involved in the declaration of martial law.
Friday’s verdict sparked jubilation and fury at opposing protest camps in Seoul, with pro-impeachment demonstrators outside the National Assembly chanting “we won, we won!”
Across town, outside the court, pro-Yoon protesters faced off with a huge police presence. The mostly older crowd, waving South Korean and U.S. flags, shouted “you’ve gone crazy” and “stop lying” as the court’s verdict was read out, Yonhap reported.
Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party urged supporters to refrain from violence, saying it “humbly accepted” the court’s verdict and will work to stabilize the country.
With a report from Reuters