South Korean lawmakers kickstarted a push to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol in the early hours of Thursday, accusing him of declaring martial law to stop criminal investigations into himself and his family.
Yoon’s declaration of South Korea’s first martial law in more than four decades was swiftly overturned by lawmakers in a night of drama, but has plunged the country into political turmoil and alarmed its close allies.
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The future of Yoon, a conservative politician and former star public prosecutor who was elected president in 2022, now looks highly uncertain.
After jumping fences and tussling with security forces to get into parliament and vote down the martial law overnight, opposition lawmakers filed a motion to impeach Yoon.
Yoon’s prospects look bleak — the opposition holds a large majority in the 300-member legislature and needs only a handful of defections from the president’s party to secure the two-thirds majority needed to pass the motion.
The main opposition Democratic Party has also filed a complaint of “insurrection” against the president, some of his ministers and top military and police officials — which can carry a penalty of life imprisonment or even death.
In a show of public anger with Yoon, thousands of protesters converged around his office in central Seoul late Wednesday after staging a rally in Gwanghwamun Square, demanding his resignation.
Seoul’s stock exchange closed down more than one percent Wednesday as markets were roiled by the turmoil.
‘Anti-state’ elements
Yoon said martial law was needed to “safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness”.
Yoon did not elaborate on the North’s threats, but the South remains technically at war with nuclear-armed Pyongyang.
The president labelled the Democratic Party “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime”.
In recent weeks, Yoon and his People Power Party have been bitterly at odds with the opposition over next year’s budget.
His approval rating dropped to 19 percent in the latest Gallup poll last week, with voters angry at the state of the economy as well as controversies involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
Yoon’s action took allies by surprise, with the United States, which has nearly 30,000 troops in the country, saying it had no prior notice and voicing relief at his reversal.
