South Korea's parliament votes to impeach president over martial law declaration

SEOUL: South Korean lawmakers on Saturday (Dec 14) voted to remove President Yoon Suk Yeol from office for his failed attempt to impose martial law last week.

Out of 300 lawmakers, 204 voted to impeach the president on allegations of insurrection while 85 voted against it.

Three abstained, with eight votes nullified.

Under the constitution, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was appointed by Yoon, becomes the acting president.

Han promised his utmost efforts to ensure stability after Yoon's impeachment. "I will give all my strength and efforts to stabilise the government," Han told reporters.

Yoon is the second conservative president in a row to be impeached in South Korea. Park Geun-hye was removed from office in 2017.

Yoon survived a first impeachment vote last weekend, when his party largely boycotted the vote, depriving parliament of a quorum.

"Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt. I will never give up," Yoon said.

Regarded as a tough political survivor but increasingly isolated, he has been dogged by personal scandals and strife, an unyielding opposition and rifts within his own party.

South Korea's main opposition party on Saturday hailed the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol as a "victory of the people" after the country's parliament voted to suspend him from office.

"Today's impeachment is the great victory of the people," Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae said following the vote.

Although suspended, Yoon remains in office while South Korea's Constitutional Court deliberates whether to uphold his removal.

If Yoon is removed from office, a snap election will be called. The court now has about six months to rule on Yoon's future.

Yoon shocked the nation late on Dec 3 when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers in order to root out what he called "anti-state forces" and overcome obstructionist political opponents.

He later apologised to the nation but also defended his decision and resisted calls to resign ahead of the vote.

A Seoul police official told AFP at least 200,000 people had massed outside parliament in support of removing the president.

Choi Jung-ha, 52, danced in the street after the vote.

"Isn't it amazing that we, the people, have pulled this off together?" she told AFP.

"I am 100 per cent certain the Constitutional Court will side with the impeachment."

On the other side of Seoul near Gwanghwamun Square, police estimated 30,000 had rallied in support of Yoon, blasting patriotic songs and waving South Korean and American flags.

"Yoon had no choice but to declare martial law. I approve of every decision he has made as president," supporter Choi Hee-sun, 62, told AFP before the vote.

"SAFEGUARD DEMOCRACY"

The main opposition Democratic Party said on Saturday said ahead of the vote that impeachment was the "only way" to "safeguard the Constitution, the rule of law, democracy and South Korea's future".

"We can no longer endure Yoon's madness," spokeswoman Hwang Jung-a said.

At the rally outside parliament supporting impeachment, volunteers gave out free hand warmers on Saturday morning to fight the sub-zero temperatures, as well as coffee and food.

K-pop singer Yuri of the band Girl's Generation – whose song "Into the New World" has become a protest anthem – said she had pre-paid for food for fans attending the demonstration.

"Stay safe and take care of your health!" she said on a superfan chat platform.

One protester said she had rented a bus so parents at the rally would have a place to change diapers and feed their babies.

Another said they had initially planned to spend their Saturday hiking.

"But I came here instead to support my fellow citizens," Kim Deuk-yun, 58, told AFP.

DEFIANT

If the Constitutional Court backs his removal, Yoon would become the second president in South Korean history to be successfully impeached.

But there is also precedent for the court to block impeachment. In 2004, then-president Roh Moo-hyun was removed by parliament for alleged election law violations and incompetence, but the Constitutional Court later reinstated him.

The court currently only has six judges, meaning their decision must be unanimous.

Following the vote, parliament speaker Woo Won-shik, said the assembly would seek to nominate three more judges to the court as soon as possible.

"The future of South Korea lies within its people," he said.

Yoon has remained unapologetic and defiant as the fallout from his disastrous martial law declaration has deepened and an investigation into his inner circle has widened.

In another defiant speech on Thursday, Yoon vowed to "fight to the end", defending his martial law decree as necessary to overcome political deadlock and protect the country from domestic politicians who he said were undermining democracy.

His approval rating – never very high – has plummeted to 11 per cent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday.

The same poll showed that 75 per cent now support his impeachment.