South Korea’s leadership crisis deepened on Friday after lawmakers voted to oust a second head of state, the acting president, in less than two weeks.
The move prolonged the political vacuum that has gripped South Korea since President Yoon Suk Yeol shocked the country this month by briefly putting it under military rule for the first time in decades.
Lawmakers impeached and suspended Mr. Yoon on Dec. 14 over the martial law move, and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stepped in as acting president. But Mr. Han’s tenure would also prove short-lived, as opposition lawmakers voted on Friday to impeach Mr. Han, as well.
This was the first time South Korea had impeached an interim leader. It meant that South Korea continued to be without a strong elected leader who could take charge of the government and military in one of Washington’s most important allies, at a time when the country is grappling with North Korea’s nuclear threats and economic challenges at home. The political uncertainty has pushed business and consumer confidence lower and caused the currency, the won, to plunge.
The latest impeachment “suggests to the world the possibility that Korea’s political unrest could be prolonged and worsen,” Jeong Hoiok, a professor of political science at Myoungji University in Seoul, said in an email. This would cause “significant harm to the diplomacy and economic status that Korea has built so far.”
Mr. Han’s impeachment meant that the finance minister and deputy prime minister, Choi Sang-mok, would be next in line to be named acting president. But like Mr. Han, Mr. Choi has no electoral mandate.
“The most important thing right now is to minimize the confusion in state affairs,” Mr. Choi said after assuming his role as interim leader. “The government will do its best to stabilize them.”
The move to impeach Mr. Han on Friday came after he refused to appoint three judges to fill vacancies in the Constitutional Court, the body that will be deciding whether to reinstate or formally remove Mr. Yoon.
At the heart of the matter is how the court might rule on Mr. Yoon’s impeachment. Six or more justices of the nine-member court must vote in favor of impeachment to remove Mr. Yoon from office. The top court currently has only six justices, after three others retired earlier this year, so the impeachment could be overturned with just one dissenting voice in Mr. Yoon’s trial.
Mr. Yoon has vowed to overturn his impeachment at the Constitutional Court. But the opposition wanted him ousted through a full nine-justice Constitutional Court as soon as possible and described Mr. Han’s refusal to appoint the justices as a delaying tactic by the governing camp.
The opposition had pushed for Mr. Han, as acting president, to sign off on nominees to fill the bench in the Constitutional Court. All the three vacancies were slots to be filled by the National Assembly, although they were formally appointed by the president. But Mr. Yoon’s governing party argued that only an elected president has the power to appoint justices.
Mr. Han had said that he would not appoint the nominees unless the rival parties came to an agreement on whether he had the authority to do so as the acting president, and on who should be appointed as justices.
An acting president should “refrain from exercising the president’s own significant powers, including the appointment of constitutional institutions,” said Mr. Han, a career bureaucrat.
The opposition has accused Mr. Han of aiding Mr. Yoon in his brief declaration of martial law on Dec. 3. Lawmakers accused Mr. Yoon of perpetrating an insurrection by sending troops into the National Assembly to block them from voting down his martial law and to detain his opponents.
The Constitutional Court has up to six months to decide whether to reinstate or remove Mr. Yoon. Mr. Yoon’s trial started on Friday. He did not attend court, but was instead represented by his lawyers.
Mr. Yoon also faces investigations by the police and prosecutors on charges including insurrection. On Friday, the police raided a presidential safe house where Mr. Yoon was alleged to have met with officials to discuss imposing martial law, according to the Korean news agency, Yonhap.
The political crisis has added to worries about South Korea’s economy, which was already facing slowing growth and worries about exports. On Thursday, the won, one of the weakest currencies in Asia this year, tumbled to levels against the U.S. dollar not seen since the global financial crisis a decade and a half ago. The stock market is down about 10 percent this year.
The rival parties had disagreed on how many votes were needed for Mr. Han to be impeached. The governing party maintained that just as in the impeachment of a president, at least two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly had to vote in favor for the motion to pass. (President Yoon’s party controls 108 seats.) The opposition asserted, however, that a simple majority vote would be enough to remove him from his office as prime minister as outlined by the Constitution.
On Friday, the speaker of the National Assembly, Woo Won-shik, a member of the Democratic Party, announced that only 151 votes — a majority — were required. Lawmakers from the governing party then shouted that the vote was invalid and that Mr. Woo should resign.
Professor Cha Jina, a law professor at Korea University in Seoul, said that Mr. Han should be subject to a majority vote because “the acting president in South Korea is not actually the president and is just working in their stead as the prime minister.”
The motion was passed, 192-0. Mr. Han said he would respect the National Assembly’s decision and indicated that he would step aside to allow Mr. Choi to take over as the interim leader. He also said he would wait for the Constitutional Court to decide whether the impeachment vote was constitutional.
“In order not to add to the confusion and uncertainty, I will suspend my duties in line with relevant laws, and wait for the swift and wise decision of the Constitutional Court,” Mr. Han said in a statement.
Mr. Han has been working in the government since the early 1970s, serving in posts that include trade negotiator, finance minister and ambassador to the United States.
Like Mr. Han, Mr. Choi had been a career bureaucrat, climbing the ranks at the finance ministry. He served as a deputy finance minister when former President Park Geun-hye was impeached and removed from office in 2017. He then left government until Mr. Yoon picked him as his presidential secretary for economic affairs in 2022 and later made him the finance minister.
“The most important thing right now is to minimize the confusion in state affairs,” Mr. Choi said after assuming his role as interim leader. “The government will do its best to stabilize them.”
Lee Jae-mook, a professor of political science from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said that he expected the governing party to contest the legal validity of Friday’s vote.
“The essence of democracy is mutual respect for the other side,” he said. But with politics becoming “more polarized, South Korean democracy is being put to the test.”
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