South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached by the National Assembly on Saturday, less than two weeks after his short-lived and ill-fated attempt to declare martial law. Yoon is now suspended from his duties until the country’s Constitutional Court decides, sometime in the next six months, whether to reinstate him or formally remove him from office, which would trigger a snap presidential election. PM Han Duck-soo is now serving as interim president. (New York Times)
Our Take
Yoon’s impeachment comes a week after the first attempt by lawmakers to do so failed. In the initial aftermath of the martial law declaration, Yoon’s ruling People’s Power Party, or PPP—which does not hold a legislative majority—wanted to avoid the stigma of impeaching two conservative presidents in a row, given that former President Park Geun-hye was removed from office in 2017. They had hoped Yoon would resign or, at the very least, informally agree to lay low and step away from governance. Instead, he confrontationally vowed to fight calls for his impeachment to the very end and continue leading the government in the meantime, prompting a dozen members of his own party to break ranks.
Now, Yoon’s impeachment marks a victory for South Korea’s constitutional order, as enough members of the PPP were willing to put the country’s democracy over their party allegiance. At the same time, though, it doesn’t undo the damage done in the past two weeks. Yoon’s declaration of martial law, including his reported plans to prevent the National Assembly from overturning it, have significantly hurt the country’s reputation on the international stage, with implications for Seoul’s perceived dependability as an ally in Washington and Tokyo. The fact that the first impeachment vote failed due to the PPP’s refusal to support it only worsened that reputational damage.