South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol

After declaring martial law, Yoon sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the parliament to try to impede its vote on the decree before they withdrew after the parliament rejected it. No major violence occurred.

Opposition parties and many experts accuse Yoon of rebellion, citing a law clause that categorises as rebellion the staging of a riot against established state authorities to undermine the constitution. They also say that by law a president in South Korea is allowed to declare martial law only during wartime or similar emergencies and has no right to suspend parliament’s operations.

The impeachment motion alleged that Yoon “committed rebellion that hurts peace on the Republic of Korea by staging a series of riots.” It said Yoon’s mobilisation of military and police forces threatened the National Assembly and the public and that his martial law decree was aimed at disturbing the Constitution.

In a fiery speech on Thursday, Yoon rejected the rebellion charges, calling his martial law order an act of governance.

“I will fight to 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,” Yoon said.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung called Yoon’s speech a “mad declaration of war” against his own people.

The Democratic Party and five other opposition parties control the 300-member unicameral parliament with a combined 192 seats, but they are eight seats shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass Yoon’s impeachment motion.

Prior to the impeachment vote, Yoon was banned from leaving South Korea. A leader of a rebellion plot can, by law, face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

AP