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By Brendan Cole
Senior Reporter
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South Korea's parliament has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law earlier this month.
On Saturday, the country's National Assembly voted by 204 to 85 to impeach Yoon and suspend his powers and duties, the Associated Press reported. The motion required the support of two-thirds of lawmakers to pass. At least 200,000 people had gathered outside parliament in support of removing the president, according to AFP.
Yoon survived a first impeachment vote last Saturday after most of his ruling People Power Party (PPP) boycotted it.
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The president issued a martial law decree on December 3, which caused nationwide political turmoil. It lasted only six hours as the country's parliament voted to block the decree.
South Korea's Constitutional Court has 180 days to decide whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers. If he is forced out, an election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.
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Yoon's refusal to resign and his insistence that he was right to declare martial law convinced some lawmakers from his own party to cross the aisle and meet the two-thirds majority, or 200 votes, required to oust him, The Washington Post reported.
Yoon justified the martial law declaration as a move to thwart "anti-state" activities by the opposition parities controlling the National Assembly. He sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the parliament in a bid to block its vote on the decree.
He said on Thursday that his decision was an act of governance, and accused the main liberal opposition Democratic Party of being a "monster" that had tried to impeach officials and undermine the government's budget bill.
"Korean democracy has survived a close call, and other democracies with a presidential form of government should take heed of the lessons from this episode," said Tom Pepinsky, government and public policy professor at Cornell University.
"President Yoon's attempt to declare martial law reveals the fragility of the rule of law in divided societies, especially those with presidential governments in which the chief executive cannot be easily dismissed by the legislature," he told Newsweek.
Pepinsky said it was fortunate that the martial law declaration was decisively opposed by the country's National Assembly, as well as the media, civil society, and the rank-and-file members of the military who opted not to use violence against protesters and lawmakers.
"Most importantly, no members of President Yoon's own party were willing to defend his actions in public, nor did any vote in defense of his martial law declaration," he added.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will serve as interim president as South Korea enters a period of uncertainty.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will serve as interim president as South Korea enters a state of uncertainty while the Constitutional Court decides on the charges at the same time as a presidential transition in the United States.
The Post said the power vacuum could compromise Seoul's ability to respond to possible changes in trade policy given President-elect Donald Trump's threats to seek higher tariffs and suggestion that South Korea should pay high amounts for the 30,000 American troops on the peninsula.
Rachel Beatty Riedl, director of Cornell University's Center on Global Democracy said that South Korea's political upheaval may have significant consequences for broader geostrategic alignment.
"Global allies who saw South Korea as a strong democratic partner under the Yoon regime will be taking stock of the democratic resilience of its citizens, political parties, and institutional checks while awaiting a transitional period of foreign policy uncertainty that would accompany a leadership change," she told Newsweek.
"The South Korean democratic resistance reinforces the global premise that democracies are able to remove leaders who attempt to usurp power through force, and hold political elites accountable for performance," she said.
Update on 12/14/24 at 4:41 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with further information and comment.
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