South Korean MPs impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday after his failed attempt to impose martial law and have the military muzzle Parliament on December 3.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the National Assembly exploded with joy when House Speaker Woo Won-shik announced the result of the vote: 204 votes for impeachment, 85 against, 3 abstentions. and 8 invalid ballots.
The impeachment motion needed to receive at least 200 votes out of 300 to pass. The opposition, which has 192 deputies, has therefore succeeded in switching 12 of the 108 elected representatives of the People’s Power Party (PPP), Mr. Yoon’s formation, to its camp.
The president is now suspended, awaiting validation of his dismissal by the Constitutional Court within 180 days. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo takes over as interim minister.
“This is a victory for the people and for democracy,” said Park Chan-dae, the leader of the Democratic Party deputies, the main opposition force, just after the vote.
“Brain” of the rebellion
The imposition of martial law “is a clear violation of the Constitution and a serious violation of the law,” Mr. Park declared from the podium before the vote. “Yoon Suk Yeol is the mastermind of this rebellion.”
“I urge you to vote in favor of impeachment to leave a historic lesson that those who destroy the constitutional order will be held accountable,” Mr. Park continued. “Yoon Suk Yeol is the biggest risk for the Republic of Korea.”
On December 7, a first impeachment motion failed, most of the deputies from Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) having left the chamber to prevent the quorum from being reached.
200,000 demonstrators
At the announcement of the impeachment, the approximately 200,000 demonstrators massed in front of the National Assembly exploded with joy, dancing to the sound of deafening K-pop, sometimes embracing each other in tears and waving light sticks, according to journalists of the AFP on site.
“Isn’t it amazing that we, the people, have achieved this together?” said Choi Jung-ha, a 52-year-old protester.
Several thousand of Mr. Yoon’s supporters also gathered in central Seoul, waving South Korean and American flags.
“I am deeply frustrated,” the deposed president said on television, confirming that he would now “step aside for a period of time.” He called for an end to “the politics of excess and confrontation” in favor of a “politics of deliberation and consideration”.
The Constitutional Court has six months to confirm or overturn Parliament’s decision. Three of its nine judges having retired in October without being replaced due to political deadlock, the remaining six will have to make their decision unanimously.
If the impeachment is validated, an early presidential election will take place within 60 days.
The President of the Court, Moon Hyung-bae, promised “a rapid and fair procedure” and summoned the other judges for a first meeting Monday morning.
Yoon Suk Yeol, 63, is the third president in the history of South Korea to be impeached by Parliament, after Park Geun-hye in 2017 and Roh Moo-hyun in 2004. The latter, however, saw his impeachment invalidated by the Constitutional Court two months after its adoption by the deputies.
Driven from power, targeted by a criminal investigation for “rebellion” and prohibited from leaving the country, Yoon Suk Yeol sees the judicial net tightening on him and his close collaborators.
Arrests
On Friday, prosecutors announced the arrest of the head of Seoul’s military command, and a court issued arrest warrants for the heads of the national police and Seoul police, citing a “risk of destruction of evidence.” .
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, considered the person who pushed the president to impose martial law, was the first to be arrested on December 8. He attempted suicide two days later in detention.
Yoon Suk Yeol stunned South Korea on the night of December 3 to 4 by establishing martial law, a first in more than four decades in the country, and sending the army to Parliament to try to prevent MPs from meet.
In a hemicycle surrounded by special forces, parliamentarians still managed to hold an emergency session and vote on a text calling for the abolition of martial law, which the president was constitutionally obliged to obey.
Yoon Suk Yeol, a former prosecutor who entered politics late and was elected president in 2022, justified his coup by his desire to “protect liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korean communist forces and eliminate elements hostile to the State”, accusing the Parliament dominated by the opposition of torpedoing all its initiatives and blocking the country.
