SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean lawmakers on Saturday passed a resolution to impeach President Yun Seok-Yeol for his failure to impose martial law, which threw East Asian democracies and a key U.S. ally into turmoil.
The vote was 204 in favor and 85 against, with 3 abstentions and 8 invalid votes. All 300 members of the unicameral parliament voted for the motion, but a two-thirds majority was needed for it to pass.
After the motion was passed, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik said, “Dear everyone, please enjoy your year-end party now.”
The motion argued that Yun’s declaration of martial law was unconstitutional and illegal because there was no sign of a national emergency and he failed to comply with procedural regulations such as prior notification to the National Assembly.
Supporters of the motion included members of Yin’s ruling People Power Party (PPP), which failed to pass the previous impeachment vote after boycotting it. Although the opposition party controls parliament, it only has 192 seats and would have needed the support of at least eight PPP members to impeach Yun.
Park Chan-dae, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said the vote was a “victory for the people and democracy.”
“This is just the beginning,” he said. “We will conduct a thorough investigation into those involved in martial law,” he said.
After the vote, Yoon was immediately suspended from government, and Prime Minister Han Do-soo was appointed as acting president. The Democratic Progressive Party previously said that Yoon had already been effectively suspended and that it was cooperating with Han in managing national politics.
After the impeachment vote, Han told reporters, “I will do my best to ensure stable governance of our country.”
Mr. Han could also be impeached for his role in declaring martial law.
The Blue House confirmed to NBC News on Saturday that Yun is staying at the presidential palace and will remain there until the Constitutional Court rules, which will take six months to decide whether to support the impeachment charges. .
Since Yun declared emergency martial law last week, there have been widespread calls for his resignation. The order was short-lived and lifted by Yun within hours after lawmakers unanimously rejected it, banning all political activity and censoring the press.
Yun, 63, who once served as the country’s chief prosecutor, is prohibited from traveling abroad as he is being investigated on suspicion of sedition. Police attempted to raid his office on Wednesday but were thwarted by security officials.
Yun, who took office in 2022 for a single five-year term, has struggled to push his policies through the opposition-controlled parliament, and declaring martial law would only further erode public support. According to a Korea Gallup poll released on Friday, Yoon’s approval rating was at a record low of 11%, down from 13% the previous week, Yonhap News reported.
Support for Yun’s impeachment was growing even within the Conservative Party.
“All we all have to think about today is our country, South Korea, and the Korean people,” PPP leader Han Dong-hoon told reporters in front of lawmakers gathered for the vote. spoke.
Newly elected PPP parliamentary leader Quyen Song Dong, a veteran politician close to Yin, said the party remains formally opposed to impeachment.
In the capital, Seoul, a large number of demonstrators braved the cold weather to gather in front of the National Assembly ahead of the vote.
Yoon’s declaration of martial law deeply shook South Korea, which had lived under military dictatorship for decades.
Hours after the Dec. 3 announcement, Park Geun-ha said, “If the country is not stable, no matter how well I do in exams and prepare for my dreams, my dreams will be quickly crushed.” I thought it might be possible,” he said. members of the Korean University Students Progressive Alliance said in a speech at a rally ahead of Saturday’s vote.
“Therefore, we call for President Yoon’s immediate impeachment and arrest.”
Many of the demonstrators’ supporters carried K-pop penlights and pre-ordered food for them. K-Pop singer-songwriter IU said she provided 200 pieces of bread, 100 rice cakes, 200 bowls of rice soup and oxtail soup, and 200 drinks to the participants in the rally so they could “warm their bodies a little bit.”
A dedicated website helped demonstrators know where to find restrooms and free food and drink, and buses were provided for parents who needed a place to change their children’s diapers.
Some rallied to support Mr. Yoon, with pro-Yun protester Lee Kang-sang saying his event drew nearly 1 million people. NBC News could not independently verify the numbers.
“I’m concerned that if President Yoon is impeached, the opposition will become even stronger,” he told NBC News by phone.
Some South Koreans expressed relief after the impeachment resolution, saying that the declaration of martial law may have hurt the world’s 10th largest economy.
Park Hyo-won, who runs a rental car company in Seoul, said, “I was very worried that if the president remained in office, he would do something unexpected and unimaginable that would further worsen our business confidence.” .
Human Rights Watch said South Koreans “have stood up and fought to protect democracy and human rights.”
“The impeachment process highlights how important checks and balances are in deterring abuse of power and supporting the rule of law,” said Simon Henderson, acting director for Asia.
Several people have already been arrested in connection with the martial law declaration, including former Minister of Defense Kim Yong-hyun, the National Police Agency chief, and the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
Mr. Yin has twice apologized for causing “anxiety” to the people on his orders, but in Thursday’s defiant speech he paralyzed the government to the point where rebels felt it was impossible to declare martial law. He accused them of letting him down and vowed to “fight to the end.” His only choice.
Representative Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Japan said on Friday that Yoon’s speech was a “declaration of war against the people.”
“Impeachment is the quickest and surest way to end the crisis,” said Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election.
He urged PPP members to vote in favor of the second impeachment motion, saying, “History will remember and record your choice.”
Lee also thanked the United States and its allies for their “consistent support” for democracy in South Korea, which hosts about 30,000 American troops.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol told members of Congress on Friday that he would “do our best to restore trust in international relations and maintain the South Korea-US alliance.”
Leif Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said Yoon’s impeachment is not the end of South Korea’s political turmoil.
“This is not the beginning of the end; it will ultimately be about electing a new president.”
Mr. Easley said Mr. Lee, who is the favorite to succeed Mr. Yoon in the election, is also in legal jeopardy, with one conviction on appeal and several other convictions pending. The matter is pending, and he could be stripped of his job.
The communist regime of North Korea took advantage of the political turmoil in South Korea, not reporting on the declaration of martial law for a week, but on Thursday, for the second day, state media highlighted protests “demanding the impeachment of the puppet Yun Seok-Yeol regime.” . The two countries are technically at war after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Without providing evidence, Mr. Yoon, who has taken a tougher stance on North Korea than his Democratic Party predecessor, used the argument that the opposition would sympathize with the nuclear-armed state as a justification for declaring martial law. He was accusing them of being in trouble.
In a speech on Thursday, Yun said without evidence that North Korea hacked South Korea’s National Elections Commission last year and exposed security issues, leading to April parliamentary elections in which the liberal opposition won a landslide victory. said it cast doubt on the integrity of the results. .
Kim Yong-bin, secretary-general of the commission, said Friday there was no evidence of election fraud or that the system had been hacked and that all votes were cast using paper ballots.
“It is impossible to commit election fraud in our system,” he said.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea, and Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong.
