The second time was good: the South Korean Parliament adopted this Saturday, December 14, an impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk-yeol, for his failed attempt to impose martial law on December 3. A total of 204 MPs voted in favor of the motion and 85 against. Three elected officials abstained and eight ballots were declared invalid, according to the result announced by the president of the chamber.
The impeachment motion needed to receive at least 200 votes out of 300 to pass. The opposition, which has 192 deputies, therefore succeeded in switching 12 of the 108 elected representatives of the People’s Power Party (PPP), Yoon Suk-yeol’s formation, to its camp.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered outside the National Assembly while waiting for the vote exploded with joy at the announcement of the result, according to AFP journalists on site. Several thousand supporters of the president also gathered in central Seoul awaiting the result, waving South Korean and American flags and calling for the arrest of opposition leaders.
The ousted president “deeply frustrated”
Yoon Suk-yeol is now suspended, pending whether or not the Constitutional Court validates his dismissal. She has 180 days to do this. 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.
Reacting to the vote, the deposed president confirmed that he was stepping down, saying he was “deeply frustrated” and calling for an end to “the politics of confrontation”. “I am deeply frustrated (…) but I must withdraw,” he declared on television, calling for an end to “the politics of excess and confrontation” in favor of ” policy of deliberation and consideration”.
“The great victory of the people and democracy”
The interim will be held by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. “I have a heavy heart. I will mobilize all my forces (…) to ensure stable governance,” the latter told journalists. If the Court confirms the impeachment, Yoon Suk-yeol will become the second president in the history of South Korea to suffer this fate, after Park Geun-hye in 2017. But there is also a precedent of impeachment voted by Parliament and then invalidated two months later by the Constitutional Court: that of Roh Moo-hyun in 2004.
Unpopular President Yoon Suk-yeol, 63, stunned South Korea by imposing martial law on the night of December 3 to 4 and sending the army to Parliament to prevent deputies from meeting there. His dismissal is “the great victory of the people and democracy”, greeted Park Chan-dae, leader of the Democratic Party group (main opposition force) in Parliament.
The imposition of martial law “is a clear violation of the Constitution and a serious infraction of the law,” he declared earlier from the podium, before the vote. “Yoon Suk-yeol is the mastermind of this rebellion,” he added, before continuing: “I urge you to vote in favor of impeachment in order to leave a historical lesson that those who destroy the constitutional order must to be held accountable.” And he insisted: “Yoon Suk-yeol is the biggest risk for the Republic of Korea.”
On December 7, a first motion for dismissal failed, most of the PPP deputies having left the chamber to prevent the quorum from being reached.