South Kore­an Law­mak­ers Move To Impeach Pres­i­dent Over Short-Lived Mar­tial Law Order

South Kore­an law­mak­ers are mov­ing to impeach Pres­i­dent Yoon Suk Yeol over a short-lived mar­tial law dec­la­ra­tion that was unan­i­mous­ly shot down in the Nation­al Assem­bly on Tues­day.

Oppo­si­tion par­ties in South Korea intro­duced a motion to impeach Yoon on Wednes­day. That motion could be vot­ed on as ear­ly as this week and would require a two-thirds major­i­ty to pass the uni­cam­er­al Nation­al Assem­bly. Six of the nine jus­tices on South Korea’s Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court would then have to approve the motion to remove Yoon from office, accord­ing to the Asso­ci­at­ed Press.

The oppo­si­tion coali­tion in the Nation­al Assem­bly, led by South Korea’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, holds 191 seats in the 300-seat par­lia­ment, so the impeach­ment motion would need sup­port from some mem­bers of Yoon’s own Peo­ple Pow­er Par­ty to pass.

Par­lia­ment mem­bers vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly 190–0 in an emer­gency ses­sion ear­ly Wednes­day to rescind Yoon’s Tues­day mar­tial law dec­la­ra­tion. That vote includ­ed more than a dozen mem­bers from Yoon’s par­ty.

The sit­u­a­tion means that Yoon, a con­ser­v­a­tive politi­cian who has been friend­ly with the Unit­ed States, may be near­ing the end of his polit­i­cal career. His mar­tial law order shocked even mem­bers of his own par­ty and inspired wide­spread back­lash. Armed sol­diers sur­round­ed the Nation­al Assem­bly and clashed with pro­test­ers in a scene rem­i­nis­cent of South Korea’s mil­i­tary rule of the 1980s.

Yoon’s gam­ble has left experts won­der­ing what the pres­i­dent believed would hap­pen.

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“I was in Seoul less than two weeks ago meet­ing with very senior offi­cials and there was no indi­ca­tion that Yoon would do this, or even a warn­ing of Yoon’s grow­ing anger,” said Bruce Klingn­er, a senior research fel­low and expert on north­east Asia for The Her­itage Foun­da­tion. “It real­ly was quite a shock­ing devel­op­ment. I think it caught every­one by sur­prise.”

“I think the impli­ca­tions are that Yoon, per­haps, is a dead man walk­ing, and that he may well be impeached to be replaced by some­one who will not be in line with U.S. objec­tives,” Klingn­er told The Dai­ly Wire.

Yoon deliv­ered a speech denounc­ing “shame­less pro-North Kore­an anti-state forces that are plun­der­ing the free­dom and hap­pi­ness of our peo­ple” before declar­ing mar­tial law. The mil­i­tary rule, which placed strict reg­u­la­tions on the media and polit­i­cal activ­i­ty, was to remain in effect until Yoon could “erad­i­cate anti-state forces … and nor­mal­ize the coun­try,” he said.

The pres­i­dent cit­ed an unwork­able rela­tion­ship with South Korea’s oppo­si­tion-led Nation­al Assem­bly, which had tar­get­ed 22 offi­cials for impeach­ment since Yoon took office in 2022 and, accord­ing to Yoon, planned to tar­get 10 more offi­cials. The pres­i­dent also cit­ed Nation­al Assem­bly reduc­tions in the nation­al bud­get, which he said “under­mined the essen­tial func­tions of the state and turned Korea into a drug par­adise and a pub­lic order pan­ic.”

Yoon’s com­plaints about the par­lia­ment fell short of jus­ti­fy­ing a dec­la­ra­tion of mar­tial law, how­ev­er. The Nation­al Assembly’s behav­ior, while obstruc­tion­ist, was car­ried out through con­sti­tu­tion­al means, accord­ing to Klingn­er.

“It does seem to be extra-con­sti­tu­tion­al actions by the pres­i­dent,” Klingn­er said. “There is a clause, which he cit­ed in his dec­la­ra­tion, as allow­ing the pres­i­dent to declare mar­tial law, but that is reserved for war, armed con­flict, or a nation­al emer­gency, none of which seems to be preva­lent here.”