After a week of chaos, will South Korea impeach its president?

Good morning. Is South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, on the verge of being forced out of office for declaring martial law last week?
The question, which has dogged Yoon through a series of moves by the opposition to end his presidency, will be highlighted tomorrow, when parliament will make a second attempt at his impeachment. The embattled president yesterday promised to “fight until the end to prevent the forces and criminal groups that have been responsible for paralysing the country’s government and disrupting the nation’s constitutional order from threatening the future of the Republic of Korea”.
The past week has seen political chaos and huge protests by angry South Koreans after Yoon’s baffling, late night martial law edict on 3 December. As lawmakers debate impeachment, investigations into Yoon’s decree have been accompanied by detentions of high-level officials. Today’s newsletter explains what you need to know about one of the most politically fraught weeks in recent South Korean history. First, here are the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘A confession of rebellion’

The South Korean opposition has labelled Yoon’s short-lived martial law declaration an “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup” and described yesterday’s televised speech by the president as “an expression of extreme delusion” and “false propaganda”. But with 192 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, it needs support from at least eight members of the president’s conservative governing party to get the two-thirds majority required to pass an impeachment motion.

Yoon’s speech yesterday seemed designed to influence supporters in parliament, defending his martial law decree as an act of governance that cannot be the subject of investigations and doesn’t amount to rebellion. He said the deployment of nearly 300 soldiers to the national assembly was designed to maintain order, not dissolve or paralyse it. And he described the opposition as “a monster” and “anti-state”, trying to use its legislative muscle to impeach top officials, that had undermined the government’s budget bill for next year and sympathised with North Korea.

The statement was seen as an about-face from the president who had apologised last week for declaring martial law and said he wouldn’t avoid responsibility for it. Kim Min-seok, head of a Democratic party taskforce, described the speech as “a declaration of war against the people” and accused the president of attempting to incite riots by far-right forces sympathetic to him. He said the Democratic party will focus on getting the motion impeaching Yoon passed.

How did it come to this?

Yoon has had little success in getting his policies adopted by a parliament that has been controlled by the opposition since he took over in 2022. Conservatives have said the opposition moves are political revenge for investigations into Democratic party leader Lee Jae-myung, who is seen as the favourite in the next presidential election due in 2027.
Just this month, Yoon denied wrongdoing in an influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife. The claims have tanked his approval ratings and fuelled attacks by his rivals. The scandal centres on claims that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the governing party to select a particular candidate for a 2022 parliamentary byelection. Yoon has said he did nothing inappropriate.

What is martial law?

South Korea’s constitution gives the president the power to use the military to keep order in “wartime, war-like situations or other comparable national emergency states”. Martial law powers can include suspending civil rights such as freedom of the press and assembly and temporarily limiting the powers of the courts and government agencies.
The constitution also gives the national assembly the power to lift martial law with a majority vote. Lawmakers rushed to the assembly building as soon as they heard of Yoon’s declaration last week. Some climbed the walls to evade a military cordon so they could assemble a quorum. Their vote to lift the order was 190-0, including 18 members of Yoon’s own party.
The impeachment motion on the table now alleges that Yoon imposed martial law far beyond his legitimate powers and in a situation that did not meet the constitutional standard of a severe crisis. The constitution also doesn’t allow a president to use the military to suspend parliament. The motion argues that suspending political party activities and deploying troops to seal the national assembly amounted to rebellion.

What happened over the past week?

Police, prosecutors and other agencies are investigating whether Yoon and others involved in the martial law decree committed rebellion, abuse of power and other crimes. Earlier in the week, the justice ministry banned Yoon from leaving the country, but it’s still unclear if they would be able to detain or arrest the president. South Korean law gives a president immunity from prosecution while in office, except for allegations of rebellion or treason. This means that Yoon can, in theory, be questioned and detained over his martial law decree, but many observers doubt that authorities will do so forcefully because of the potential for clashes with his presidential security service. On Wednesday, Yoon’s security force didn’t allow police to search the presidential office.

Meanwhile, Yoon’s former defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, tried to kill himself at a Seoul detention centre on Wednesday night, but was stopped by correctional officers. He had been arrested on allegations of playing a key role in a rebellion and committing abuse of power, becoming the first person formally arrested over the martial law decree. Kim, who resigned after martial law was lifted, is one of Yoon’s close associates and has been accused of recommending the move to Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting on it. Officials have said Kim is in stable condition.
The country’s police chief and the head of Seoul’s metropolitan police were also detained for sending their forces to the national assembly. Lawmakers voted yesterday to impeach the police chief and the justice minister.
Thousands of protesters have been marching in the streets of Seoul calling for Yoon’s removal. Autoworkers and other members of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, one of the country’s biggest umbrella labour groups, have started hourly strikes.

What is the history of martial law in South Korea?

During the dictatorships that emerged as South Korea rebuilt from the 1950-53 Korean war, leaders occasionally proclaimed martial law that allowed them to station soldiers, tanks and armoured vehicles on streets or in public places to prevent anti-government demonstrations.
Army Gen Park Chung-hee led several thousand troops into Seoul in the early hours of 16 May 1961, in the country’s first coup. He led South Korea for nearly 20 years and proclaimed martial law several times to stop protests and jail critics before he was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979.
Less than two months after Park’s death, Maj Gen Chun Doo-hwan led tanks and troops into Seoul in December 1979 in the country’s second coup. The next year, he orchestrated a brutal military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju, killing at least 200 people.
In the summer of 1987, massive street protests forced Chun’s government to accept direct presidential elections. His army buddy Roh Tae-woo, who had joined Chun’s 1979 coup, won an election held later in 1987 largely because of divided votes among liberal opposition candidates.

What is the impeachment process?

The main opposition Democratic party submitted a new impeachment motion against Yoon yesterday to set up a vote this weekend. It will need two-thirds support in parliament to pass. Last week the first attempt at impeachment failed when most lawmakers from Yoon’s governing People Power party boycotted the vote. But the president’s speech yesterday is expected to deepen the divide inside the PPP. When party chair Han Dong-hoon, a critic of Yoon, called Yoon’s statement “a confession of rebellion” during a party meeting, Yoon loyalists angrily jeered and called on Han to stop speaking. Han has urged party members to vote in favour of Yoon’s impeachment.

If Yoon is eventually impeached, he would be suspended until the constitutional court decides whether to remove him from office. Prime minister Han Duck-soo, who holds the No 2 position in the government, would take over presidential responsibilities. If he is removed from office, a new presidential election would be required within 60 days. Associated Press

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The front pages

The Guardian leads with “Some jury trials may be axed in plan to ease court backlog”. The Times splashes with “‘Chinese spy’ with links to Andrew banned from UK”, the Telegraph has “Andrew’s links to China spy revealed” and the Mail also has “Andrew adviser is banned over fears he’s a ‘Chinese Spy’”.

The Financial Times reports “Nato’s European members discuss lifting defence spending target to 3%”, while i says “Nato warns Europe it must move to ‘wartime mindset’”.

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

You’re never too old to find love – and Marjorie Fiterman and Bernie Littman are proof of that. The Philadelphia couple met each other in their 90s at a nursing home after their spouses passed away. And after dating for nine years, they tied the knot earlier this year to become the oldest couple ever to get married, at the age of 102 and 100 respectively.

Littman’s granddaughter, Sarah Sicherman said: “They both love each other’s humour and intellect. They keep each other young.” But the couple have different ideas. Littman attributed his longevity to reading and keeping himself current. For her part, Fiterman credited buttermilk.

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Bored at work?

And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.

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