President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law has created South Korea’s biggest constitutional crisis since the country democratized in the late 1980s.
On Dec. 14, Mr. Yoon, a deeply unpopular leader, was impeached by the National Assembly, making him the third South Korean president to be suspended from power through such a vote. But the uncertainty over the country’s political future has only deepened since.
On Friday, the country’s opposition parties, which dominate the National Assembly, impeached Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been serving as acting president since Mr. Yoon’s impeachment two weeks ago. Choi Sang-mok, the finance minister, was named the new acting president.
The parliamentary vote on Friday was the first time in South Korean history that an acting president had been impeached, adding to the political turmoil created by Mr. Yoon’s ill-fated martial law and his impeachment.
In addition to his impeachment, Mr. Yoon faces a criminal inquiry, the first ever to target a sitting South Korean president.
Here is how the crisis has unfolded.
Why was the President Yoon impeached?
Mr. Yoon’s martial law decree on Dec. 3, which put the country under military rule for the first time in 45 years, lasted only six hours. But it threw South Korea’s democracy into chaos and drew public outrage, recalling the country’s painful history of military dictatorship decades ago.
In the impeachment bill, opposition lawmakers argued that Mr. Yoon had perpetrated an insurrection when he made the martial law declaration and sent troops into the National Assembly. They said that was an attempt to stop lawmakers from voting down the decree, as was their right under the Constitution.
An initial impeachment vote on Dec. 7 failed, after lawmakers from Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party boycotted it, saying that he should be given a chance to resign.
A week later, the party said that it officially opposed impeachment, but its lawmakers were allowed to cast their secret ballots. The result indicated that 12 lawmakers from Mr. Yoon’s party had joined the opposition to impeach him and another 11 abstained or cast invalid votes, sealing his fate.
The vote tally was 204 in favor and 85 against.
The fate of Mr. Yoon rests in the hands of the Constitutional Court, which will decide within the next six months whether to reinstate or formally remove him.
What happens now?
Until Friday, Mr. Han, the No. 2 official in the government hierarchy, had been serving as acting president. His own impeachment as prime minister meant that the finance minister, Mr. Choi, would step in.
Like Mr. Han, Mr. Choi is not an elected official. He will lead South Korea with no real political heft as the country faces challenges like North Korea’s growing nuclear threat and the return of Donald J. Trump to the White House.
Mr. Han said he would wait for the Constitutional Court to decide whether Friday’s vote was valid.
Mr. Yoon, meanwhile, has vowed to fight in court to regain his power.
In a recorded speech released shortly after his impeachment, Mr. Yoon listed what he considered his accomplishments as president, including his efforts to strengthen military ties with the United States and Japan. Now, his efforts have been paused, he said.
“But I will never give up,” he said.
The court will decide within 180 days whether Mr. Yoon is guilty of the crimes the National Assembly accused him of and, if so, whether they are serious enough to merit removal. If the court does formally remove him, South Korea is then supposed to elect a new leader within two months.
Why did Yoon do it?
Mr. Yoon has said that he declared martial law out of “desperation” in the face of an opposition that used its parliamentary majority to “paralyze” his government. Mr. Yoon criticized the opposition for slashing some of his government budgets planned for next year, as well as its frequent attempts to impeach his political appointees.
But such complaints cannot be grounds for declaring martial law, Kim Young Hoon, head of the Korean Bar Association, told The New York Times. Mr. Yoon also did not immediately notify the National Assembly of his declaration of martial law, as required by law, according to the assembly.
“It’s clear that President Yoon’s declaration of martial law failed to meet the requirements set by the Constitution,” Mr. Kim said.
Cho Ji-ho, head of the National Police Agency, told the assembly on Dec. 9 that when martial law was briefly in place, the military asked the police to help it locate and detain 15 people, including the leaders of the biggest political parties.
Even during martial law, however, the president has no right to detain lawmakers unless they are caught in committing a crime.
What are the criminal accusations against the president?
Mr. Yoon has been banned from leaving the country as the police and prosecutors investigate whether he and his supporters in the government and military committed insurrection when they sent armed troops into the National Assembly.
Col. Kim Hyun-tae, who led a special forces unit that was sent into the assembly, said he received orders to forcibly remove lawmakers to prevent 150 of them — the number required to repeal martial law — from gathering.
South Korea’s criminal law defines insurrection as any attempt to “overthrow government organs established by the Constitution or to render the exercise of their functions impossible by force.”
If Mr. Yoon were to be convicted of insurrection and the court ruled that he was its ringleader, he could face the death penalty or life imprisonment. Prosecutors have arrested his former defense minister and two former police chiefs on charges of helping to carry out insurrection.
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