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South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol has been removed from office, four months after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law sparked a prolonged political crisis.
The constitutional court on Friday announced in a unanimous verdict that it would uphold parliament’s vote to impeach Yoon last year over his failed power grab, stripping him of office and ending his presidency less than three years into his five year term.
Fresh presidential elections will be held within 60 days. Han Duck-soo, a Yoon appointee and long-serving technocrat, will serve as acting president until then.
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The hardline former prosecutor’s move to impose martial law in December triggered South Korea’s most severe political crisis since its transition to democracy in the late 1980s, leading to his suspension and subsequent arrest on a criminal charge of insurrection.
Yoon told the constitutional court in February that his overnight martial law decree and his decision to deploy troops to storm the country’s parliament had been necessary to “alert the public” to the “wickedness” of the leftwing opposition.
But announcing its ruling on Friday morning, acting chief justice Moon Hyung-bae said that Yoon had “violated the basic principles of a democratic state”.
Moon described how in an attempt to prevent members of parliament from voting to reject his martial law decree, Yoon had dispatched soldiers to the national assembly with orders to “break down the door and drag the lawmakers out”.
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He said Yoon’s defence minister also instructed counter-intelligence services to monitor the location of the national assembly speaker and the leaders of the main political parties – including his own – on the night of the martial law decree as a precursor to arresting them.
Military officials also illegally inspected the electoral commission’s computer systems, and monitored the locations of senior members of the judiciary, including a former chief justice of the supreme court, Moon said.
“(Yoon) mobilised military and police forces to dismantle the authority of constitutional institutions and infringed upon the fundamental rights of the people,” said Moon. “In doing so, he abandoned his duty to uphold the constitution and gravely betrayed the trust of the Korean people.”
Anti-Yoon protesters react after the Constitutional Court’s verdict © AFP via Getty Images
Yoon still faces separate criminal charges of insurrection. He denies any wrongdoing.
The landmark verdict, which marks the second time a president has been impeached and removed from office in South Korea in under a decade, comes as Asia’s fourth-largest economy wrestles with sluggish growth and deepening political polarisation.
Kwon Young-se, the interim leader of Yoon’s conservative People Power party, said the PPP would accept the ruling and that he “sincerely apologises” to the public.
Yoon’s lawyer Yun Gap-geun told reporters outside the court that he felt “deep regret” over the ruling, which he said “appears to be nothing more than a political decision.”
Given heightened tensions in recent months and violence at some pro-Yoon protests, there was a heavy police presence on the streets of Seoul on Friday.
Near the court, some Yoon supporters vandalised police vehicles, while others chanted death threats against Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the left-wing opposition Democratic Party of Korea and the frontrunner in the race to succeed Yoon.
In a statement, Lee described the verdict as marking “a new beginning for Korea”.
Jung Chang-rae, head of the opposition-controlled national assembly’s impeachment committee, described the ruling as a “victory for the constitution, democracy, and the people.”
Analysts note that South Korea is also bracing for the economic impact of US President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies. There is also concern over the Trump administration’s commitment to deterring North Korean aggression as the US president publicly muses about renewed diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang.
Han, the acting president, said that “we will do our utmost to prevent any disruptions in areas such as trade and defense, uphold public order, and remain fully prepared for all kinds of disasters”.
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