Emboldened by their forceful rejection of military rule, members of South Korea’s political opposition moved on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, after his abrupt declaration of martial law failed spectacularly.
Several opposition parties, buoyed by thousands of protesters who took to the streets to denounce the president, jointly submitted the impeachment motion, which could be put to a vote as early as Friday. While the parties represent an overwhelming majority of the National Assembly, it remains unclear whether they will have the two-thirds vote needed to impeach.
Mr. Yoon’s surprise declaration of martial law on Tuesday night, the first attempt to impose military rule in more than four decades, incited chaos within one of America’s closest allies and evoked memories of the dictatorial regimes that ruled South Korea until the 1980s.
It was an audacious attempt by the president to break the gridlock in government — between a mostly progressive assembly and a conservative executive — that has hobbled his nearly three years in power. But in the end, martial law lasted only six hours. It backfired when lawmakers scrambled past heavily armed troops who had attempted to cordon off the assembly building. The 190 members present, out of 300 total, voted unanimously to rescind military rule.
Mr. Yoon’s location was not publicly known Wednesday night and he seemed increasingly isolated. Members of his own party had denounced the martial law declaration and voted to overturn it. South Korean news media reported that the defense minister and several top aides to the president, including his chief of staff, had resigned.
If two-thirds of the assembly votes to impeach Mr. Yoon, he would be suspended from office and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a career civil servant, would become the interim president. The president’s fate would then go to the Constitutional Court, where the justices could uphold the impeachment and remove him from office, or reject it and reinstate him.
Opposition parties control 192 of the 300 assembly seats, just short of a two-thirds majority, so impeachment would require at least eight defections from Mr. Yoon’s own People Power Party, which holds 108 seats.
The imposition of military rule on Tuesday night was the shortest-lived and most bizarre martial law in the history of South Korea, which has had its share of coups and military rule before it became a vibrant democracy after military dictatorship ended in the late 1980s.
Among the enduring images from six hours of turmoil were the hundreds of paratroopers arriving by helicopter to secure the assembly — and the opposition lawmakers who climbed the walls of the building and barricaded themselves inside to be able to cast their vote against military rule.
Thousands of people took to the streets overnight, chanting “Impeach Yoon Suk Yeol!” and pushing against troops who tried to keep them out of the assembly.
A military decree had banned all political activities and civil gatherings, and declared that “all news media and publications are under the control of martial law command.” It warned that those who spread “fake news” could be arrested without a court warrant.
But the Korean media did not acquiesce. News organizations spanning the political spectrum, even right-leaning publications more aligned with Mr. Yoon and his conservative party, stood united in criticism of his actions and any efforts to limit a free press.
An editorial in Chosun Ilbo, one of South Korea’s biggest daily newspapers which has often been friendly toward Mr. Yoon, called the president’s actions an international embarrassment. Mr. Yoon needed to answer to the public on how he intended to “take responsibility” for this situation, it added.
Before jumping into the presidential race in 2022 and winning by a razor-thin margin, Mr. Yoon was a political neophyte. He was a graft-busting, star prosecutor who helped imprison two former presidents, and was accustomed to a strictly top-down culture.
His victory was attributed to the public’s discontent with his predecessor, Moon Jae-in. From the start, he laid out big ambitions, seemingly staking his claim for a legacy as a change maker in a gridlocked political system.
He put South Korea back on a path toward embracing more nuclear power, mended ties with Japan and expanded military cooperation with the United States and Japan as he took a harder line against North Korea.
But domestically, little of his agenda was fruitful. His opponents won even greater control in the assembly in parliamentary elections this year. His government was accused of using criminal investigations to intimidate opposition leaders and crack down on news media he accused of spreading “fake news.”
Mr. Yoon’s approval rating plummeted to around 20 percent as he repeatedly vetoed the opposition’s demands for independent investigations into allegations against his wife, Kim Keon Hee. The opposition stalled many of his bills and political appointments, imposed large changes on his budget proposals for next year, and pushed for the impeachment of his cabinet members, accusing them of corruption and abuse of power. At the same time, thousands of doctors went on strike for almost a year to resist his changes to the health care system.
Analysts expressed skepticism about Mr. Yoon’s future in politics.
Sung Deuk Hahm, a professor of political science at Kyonggi University, west of Seoul, said “the best option” for Mr. Yoon was to resign. “As tragic as it may seem, what happened overnight showed the resilience and durability of South Korean democracy,” he said.
Mr. Hahm, who has known Mr. Yoon since before his election, said the president appeared to grow increasingly despondent in recent months, particularly over escalating scandals surrounding him and his wife and the relentless political pressure from the opposition.
“Things have become too much for him,” Mr. Hahm said. “He became mentally unstable under political pressure.”
A former presidential aide to Mr. Yoon, who agreed to discuss the president’s leadership style on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Yoon was surrounded by a handful of aides, including former military generals, who were not used to second-guessing their boss’s decision. That small circle raised questions about how thoroughly Mr. Yoon had prepared for martial law, the aide said.
The aide added that as soon as he heard the declaration of martial law, he called contacts in Mr. Yoon’s office and other branches of the government. None of them had had advance knowledge of what was coming.
Even top leaders of Mr. Yoon’s party said they had learned of the declaration through the media. Kim Byung-joo, an opposition lawmaker and former general, told MBC Radio on Wednesday that when he called army generals near the border with North Korea, none of them knew what was happening.
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