South Korea’s Yoon defiant after impeachment over martial law bid By Reuters goodinves.com

By Joyce Lee, Hyonhee Shin and Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed on Saturday to fight for his political future after he was impeached in a second vote by the opposition-led parliament over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, a move that had shocked the nation.

The Constitutional Court will decide whether to remove Yoon sometime in the next six months. If he is removed from office, a snap election will be called.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was appointed by Yoon, became acting president while Yoon remains in office but with his presidential powers suspended halfway through his five-year term.

Han promised his utmost efforts to ensure stability after Yoon’s impeachment. “I will give all my strength and efforts to stabilise the government,” Han told reporters.

Yoon is the second conservative president in a row to be impeached in South Korea. Park Geun-hye was removed from office in 2017. Yoon survived a first impeachment vote last weekend, when his party largely boycotted the vote, depriving parliament of a quorum.

“Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt. I will never give up,” Yoon said.

Regarded as a tough political survivor but increasingly isolated, he has been dogged by personal scandals and strife, an unyielding opposition and rifts within his own party.

Protesters backing Yoon’s impeachment leapt for joy near parliament at the news, waving colourful LED sticks as music pumped out. By contrast, a rally of Yoon supporters emptied following the news.

Opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung told protesters near parliament that they should fight together so Yoon was removed as quickly as possible. “You, the people, made it. You are writing a new history,” he told the jubilant crowds braving subfreezing temperatures.

‘FIGHT TO THE END’

The impeachment motion was carried as at least 12 members of Yoon’s People Power Party joined the opposition parties, which control 192 seats in the 300-member national assembly, clearing the two-thirds threshold needed for impeachment.

The number of lawmakers supporting impeachment was 204, with 85 against, three abstentions and eight invalid ballots.

Yoon shocked the nation late on Dec. 3 when he gave the military sweeping emergency powers to root out what he called “anti-state forces” and overcome obstructionist political opponents.

He rescinded the declaration barely six hours later, after parliament defied troops and police to vote against the decree. But it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and triggered widespread calls for him to step down on the grounds that he had broken the law.

Yoon later apologised to the nation but defended his decision and resisted calls to resign.

Opposition parties launched the fresh impeachment vote, supported by large demonstrations.

Yoon is also under criminal investigation for alleged insurrection over the martial law declaration, and authorities have banned him from travelling overseas.

In another defiant speech on Thursday, Yoon vowed to “fight to the end”, defending his martial law decree as necessary to overcome political deadlock and protect the country from domestic politicians who he said were undermining democracy.

‘RACE IN THE COURTS’

Yoon’s impeachment is unlikely to end South Korea’s political turmoil, analysts warned.

“It is not even the beginning of the end,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

Opposition leader Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in 2022 and is favoured to win an election to replace him, is also in legal jeopardy, with a conviction on appeal and other rulings pending that could disqualify him from office.

“So before the final race in the polls, there will be a race in the courts,” Easley said.

Illustrating the divisions the political crisis has stirred on the streets, one Yoon supporter said he would leave the country if the Constitutional Court backed Yoon’s impeachment.

“It breaks my heart and makes me feel despair to see lawmakers trying to depose the president,” said Lee Sang-eun, a 69-year-old retired professor.

But a resident at an anti-Yoon rally called for him to resign. “For the sake of the people of South Korea, and for this nation, I hope for a swift… resolution,” said 46-year-old Lee Hoy-yeol.

When first elected, Yoon was widely welcomed in Washington and other Western capitals for his rhetoric defending global democracy and freedom, but critics said this masked growing problems at home.

He clashed with opposition lawmakers, calling them “anti-state forces”. Press freedom organisations have criticised his heavy-handed approach to media coverage that he deems negative.

The crisis and ensuing uncertainty have shaken financial markets and threatened to undermine South Korea’s reputation as a stable, democratic success story.

South Korea’s finance minister will convene an emergency meeting on the economy on Sunday afternoon, the ministry said.

The country’s foreign minister met with the U.S. ambassador while other senior diplomats met with the ambassadors from Japan and China to reassure them that South Korea’s foreign policy would remain unchanged, the foreign ministry said.