Impeachment of South Korean president moves to court; questions loom for relations with Trump

SEOUL, South Korea — It was game over for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol after a bipartisan impeachment vote in the National Assembly suspended his powers Saturday.

Twelve lawmakers from Mr. Yoon’s party were among the 204 in the 300-seat legislature to secure the two-thirds majority required for the conservative president’s impeachment. The process concluded 10 days of chaos and division over the president’s short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec 3.

“The earnestness, courage and dedication the people showed for democracy led to this decision,” National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik said.

Mr. Yoon, whose five-year term runs through 2027, remained defiant over what he called a “temporary” pause in his presidency.

Outside the National Assembly in central Seoul, protesters roared with approval when the result was announced.

“It is frustrating to think that all past efforts have been in vain,” said Mr. Yoon, whose presidency commenced in 2022. “I will never give up.”

The impeachment could calm the troubled capital. Mr. Yoon’s shock move resulted in nationwide protests, even in traditionally conservative strongholds in South Korea’s southeast.

An estimated 200,000 people gathered in freezing temperatures for the vote. The crowd was so vast that subway stations near the National Assembly were closed.

The road outside Mr. Yoon’s compound was lined with countless funeral wreaths, some placed by supporters lamenting his fate and others by opponents as a psychological pressure tactic.

Action on whether to remove Mr. Yoon from office moved to the Constitutional Court, which has ample precedent. Two of Mr. Yoon’s predecessors were impeached: Roh Moo-hyun in 2004 and Park Geun-hye in 2016.

The nine-judge panel has three vacancies.

Liberal Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, whose party holds a majority in the National Assembly, urged the Constitutional Court to rule swiftly and proposed a special council for policy cooperation between the government and parliament.

Mr. Lee, who lost the 2022 presidential election to Mr. Yoon by a razor-thin margin, told a televised news conference that a swift court ruling would be the only way to “minimize national confusion and the suffering of people.”

The court met to discuss the case Monday and has up to 180 days to decide whether impeachment stands.

In the meantime, Mr. Yoon’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, will lead a caretaker administration. If impeachment is upheld, a presidential election must be held within 60 days.

“I will devote all my strength and efforts to ensure stable governance,” Mr. Han told reporters shortly after the vote.

In Sunday’s press conference, Mr. Lee proposed a national council where the government and the National Assembly would work together to stabilize state affairs. He said his party won’t seek to impeach Mr. Han.

“The Democratic Party will actively cooperate with all parties to stabilize state affairs and restore international trust,” Mr. Lee said.

Separately on Monday, South Korean law enforcement authorities said they would summon Mr. Yoon for questioning, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether that demand would be met.

A joint investigative team involving police, an anti-corruption agency and the Defense Ministry plans to convey a request to Mr. Yoon’s office that he appear for questioning on Wednesday, police said.

However, South Korean prosecutors also asked Mr. Yoon to appear at a their office for questioning Sunday in their separate investigation, but he refused. Mr. Yoon’s office has also resisted a police attempt to search the compound for evidence.

A ‘desperate’ move

The crisis has raised questions about democratic governance in a U.S. ally with strategic, industrial, technological and pop cultural import for the wider world.

Mr. Yoon declared martial law in a late-night address on Dec. 3, acknowledging he was “desperate.” The opposition-controlled Assembly had stymied his budget proposals and impeached several nominees.

Special forces moved to seize the National Assembly, the National Electoral Commission and a prominent opposition pollster and media figure. South Korea achieved democracy after decades of struggle in 1987, and personal and institutional memory of authoritarian rule remains strong.

Demonstrations erupted, and the deployment of half-hearted commandos failed to prevent lawmakers from gathering and voting down martial law by unanimous vote: 190-0.

The martial law lasted just three hours. Not a single injury or death was reported.

Sinister aspects of the plan, such as a detention camp for Mr. Yoon’s opponents, have come to light. Allegations that a strike on North Korea was considered to justify martial law and that a “black operations” unit had deployed in plain clothes outside the Assembly are unproven.

Opposition parties drew up an impeachment motion, but the vote fell short when lawmakers from Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party boycotted the session.

The PPP hedged, but the willingness of some of its members to support the second impeachment effort suggests they had succumbed to overwhelming opinion.

Those targeted by Mr. Yoon’s original order praised the vote.

“It’s a bit late, but I am relieved,” said Choi Jong-kun, presidential secretary to the left-leaning Moon Jae-in.

“We have a sound and healthy democratic resilience,” he said. “Basically, we had a wrongful-minded president who was delusional, who committed a self-coup, and we nullified it with two weeks of civic resistance.”

Questions ahead

Despite the vote, South Korea faces an uncertain future.

The crisis dealt a body blow to South Korea’s right wing, and Mr. Yoon is the second consecutive conservative president to be impeached.

“There are going to be a lot of PPP members in serious legal trouble, and the party risks fracturing and being obliterated in the near term,” said Mason Richey, who teaches international relations at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

The crisis also highlights a deeply polarized political culture, which the impeached president noted after the vote.

“I ask that we improve our political culture and system so that politics can shift from reckless confrontation to thoughtful deliberation and consideration,” Mr. Yoon said.

The record of the past five administrations is sobering. Three presidents have been impeached, one former president has died by suicide, and two others have been imprisoned.

“My first thought is that impeachment should be rare in a democracy, not commonplace,” said Park Dong-suk, a retired businessman. “Overall, we can say this was a victory for the people, but I think it hurts Korea’s reputation.”

“We can with confidence predict deepening polarization,” said Mr. Richey. “And that is going to produce further acts of misgovernance.”

Meanwhile, the incoming Trump administration has not fully formulated a policy toward a U.S. ally at a strategic geographical junction where China, North Korea and Russia meet. Washington’s new policymakers are unlikely to invest in building tight relationships with Seoul’s caretaker government.

“We are entering a period of limbo and uncertainty, and the Constitutional Court’s clock has not started ticking yet,” said Dan Pinkston, an international relations expert at Troy University. “There is only so much bandwidth in Washington, and South Korea is down the agenda list. I think there will be autopilot, cruise control.”

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said diplomats met with ambassadors from the U.S., China and Japan to explain the situation. They said the vote did not change Seoul’s alliance with Washington.

• This article was based in part on wire service reports.