The fate of Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s embattled president, is in the hands of the country’s constitutional court today following a weekend vote to impeach him.
Parliament passed the impeachment vote on Saturday after 12 members of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) broke ranks and sided with the opposition.
Yoon is fighting claims he abused his power when he briefly declared martial law on December 3rd, casting one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies into a constitutional crisis. An earlier impeachment attempt failed last week when most PPP lawmakers boycotted it.
Presidential authority now passes to prime minister Han Duck-soo, who becomes the acting leader of the country while the court decides Yoon’s fate.
Han said after the vote that South Korea must now “prove to international society” that it can “operate normally under the solid principles of democracy and the rule of law.”
Opposition leaders expressed relief at the vote. Park Chan-dae, Democratic Party floor leader, said it represented the “glorious victory of our people,” following 12 days of mass protests.
“The suspension of insurrection mastermind Yoon Suk Yeol’s power is merely the first step toward resolving the situation,” Park said.
The vote has been welcomed by Korea observers.
“Korean democracy dodged a bullet, fired by its own president, oddly enough,” said John Delury, a former professor of history at Yonsei University in Seoul.
“The way that citizens and lawmakers sprang to action testifies to the resilience of its democracy – like antibodies that killed the infection quickly.”
[ South Korea in a ‘messy situation’ after President Yoon is impeachedOpens in new window ]
Mass protests against Yoon had been critical to his impeachment, noted Alexis Dudden, a historian of modern Korea at the University of Connecticut.
“The 20-somethings demonstrating in front of parliament in Seoul’s winter cold are chanting along to reworded K-pop songs with lyrics vowing to uphold the rights and freedoms that the 20-somethings of the 1970s and 1980s fought for in painful and violent ways.”
The South was ruled by a succession of authoritarian leaders until mass protests forced the government to hold direct elections for president in 1987.
Dudden warned that the next phase will be “critical” as the constitutional court deliberates whether Yoon violated the constitution by declaring martial law.
The court took 90 days to uphold the impeachment of former president Park Geun-hye in 2017 on corruption charges. The following year Park was found guilty of abuse of power and jailed for 24 years.
Prosecutors are also investigating Yoon on insurrection charges.
Delury said Yoon’s party would try to hold on to his right-wing base while searching for an alternative candidate for elections in the spring. The leader of the main opposition, Lee Jae-myung, is also fighting for his political life after being found guilty last month of violating election laws.
“It’s a messy situation. But no one said democracy isn’t messy, and the important point is a frightening regression to military dictatorship was stopped cold in its tracks.”
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