South Korea court begins President Yoon’s impeachment trial

South Korea’s constitutional court has begun proceedings for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol after MPs voted to oust the leader for imposing a short-lived and chaotic martial law order.

The court has six months to decide if Yoon should be removed from his position or reinstated.

On Saturday, South Korean parliament voted to impeach Yoon over his decision to implement martial law earlier in December. Yoon announced martial law with a shock televised address, claiming it was a necessary act to fight against “anti-state forces”.

The order ended after MPs forcibly entered the shuttered parliament in Seoul to vote down the decision.

Yoon and his People’s Power Party (PPP) party have been grappling with the subsequent political fallout since, with hundreds of thousands of protesters pouring into the streets of Seoul to call for Yoon’s arrest.

On Monday, PPP chair Han Dong-hun announced his resignation, saying that if martial law had not been lifted, “a bloody incident could have erupted that morning between the citizens who would have taken to the streets and our young soldiers.”

“I sincerely apologise to all the people who are suffering from this emergency situation,” Han said.

What’s next?

Although the public hearings for Yoon’s trial could take months, the court is under pressure to decide quickly and bring an end to political instability in the country.

Upholding Yoon’s impeachment needs the support from at least six out of nine judges, however the court currently only has six judges with three having recently retired and not yet been replaced.

This means that the court will have to unanimously rule in favour of Yoon’s impeachment to formally end his presidency.

In the interim, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will act as the country’s leader. He and other government officials have sought to reassure allies and markets after Yoon’s stunt paralysed the country’s politics.

Yoon’s impeachment has created a deep rift between different factions of his PPP party, with Yoon’s loyalists squaring off with those who opposed his martial law stunt.

The party adopted the official stance of opposing Yoon’s impeachment but it is believed that, over the weekend, at least 12 PPP lawmakers voted in favour of impeaching Yoon.

Opposition parties have accused Yoon of an act of rebellion, arguing that South Korea’s president should only declare martial law during wartime or a similar emergency.

Additional sources • AP