South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was ousted on Friday by the Constitutional Court, which upheld parliament’s impeachment over his imposition of martial law last year that sparked the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
The unanimous ruling caps months of political turmoil that have overshadowed efforts to deal with the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump at a time of slowing growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
A presidential election is now required to take place within 60 days, according to the constitution, with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to continue serving as acting president until the new president is inaugurated.
“The Constitutional Court’s unanimous ruling has removed a major source of uncertainty,” said Professor Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha University in Seoul. “And not a moment too soon, given how the next administration in Seoul must navigate North Korea’s military threats, China’s diplomatic pressure, and Trump’s trade tariffs.”
Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae said Yoon violated his duty as president with his December 3 martial law declaration, acting beyond his constitutional powers with actions that were “a serious challenge to democracy”.
“(Yoon) committed a grave betrayal of the people’s trust who are the sovereign members of the democratic republic,” Moon said, adding that Yoon’s declaration of martial law created chaos in all areas of society, the economy and foreign policy.
Thousands of people at a rally calling for Yoon’s ouster, including hundreds who had camped out overnight, erupted into wild cheers on hearing the ruling, chanting “We won!”
“This took a long time but it’s fortunate that it is a sensible outcome,” said Kim Han-sol, a 23-year-old student at a rally who watched the ruling outside the court.
Supporters of Yoon who were gathered near his official residence watched the ruling on a big screen in stunned silence. Some reacted in anger, with one protester arrested for smashing a police bus window, the Yonhap news agency reported. Others held their heads in hands and wept.
The South Korean won was largely unfazed by Friday’s ruling, remaining at about 1% higher versus the dollar at 1,436.6 per dollar. The benchmark KOSPI was down 0.7%, also unchanged from the morning as the expected scenario was for the court to uphold the impeachment bill.
ARGUMENTS REJECTED
The court rejected most of Yoon’s argument that he declared martial law to sound the alarm over the main opposition party’s abuse of its parliamentary majority, saying there were legal avenues to address disagreements.
The martial law decree lacked justification and was also procedurally defective, Moon said. Mobilising the military against parliament to disrupt its functions was a grave violation of Yoon’s constitutional duty to safeguard the independence of the three branches of government, he added.
The presidential flag that flew alongside the national flag at the presidential office was lowered on Friday after the ruling. At military bases and command centres around the country, portraits of Yoon will be taken down to be shredded or burned, according to law.
One of Yoon’s lawyers, Yoon Kab-keun, said it was a legally implausible decision by a court that conducted the trial in questionable manners.
“This can only be seen as a political decision and it’s really disappointing,” he told reporters. Yoon has not emerged from his official residence, where he has been holed up since his release from jail on March 8.
Kwon Young-se, the interim leader of Yoon’s ruling People Power Party, apologised to the people saying the party humbly accepted the court’s ruling and pledged to work with the acting president to stabilise the country.
Acting President Han Duck-soo, speaking after the ruling, said he would do all he could to ensure an orderly and peaceful presidential election.
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is expected to convene an emergency meeting with the Bank of Korea governor and financial regulators.
Shoring up growth and formulating a response to a 25% tariff imposed by the United States on South Korean imports are urgent priorities for the government.
The finance ministry has proposed a 10 trillion won ($7 billion) supplementary budget but needs to seek a compromise with the opposition Democratic Party whose leader Lee Jae-myung, the top liberal presidential contender, is targeting 30 trillion won.
The 64-year-old Yoon still faces a criminal trial on insurrection charges related to the martial law declaration which carries a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment. The embattled leader became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested on January 15 but was released in March after a court cancelled his arrest warrant. Oral arguments in the case starts on April 14.
The crisis was triggered by Yoon’s surprise late night declaration that martial law was needed to root out “anti-state” elements and to stop the alleged abuse of its parliamentary majority by the opposition Democratic Party.
Yoon lifted the decree six hours later after parliamentary staffers used barricades and fire extinguishers to ward off special operations soldiers who arrived by helicopter and broke windows as they sought to enter parliament, where lawmakers voted to reject martial law.
Yoon has said he never intended to fully impose emergency military rule and tried to downplay the fallout, saying nobody was hurt.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Ju-min Park, Cynthia Kim, Josh Smith, Jihoon Lee, Hyun Joo Jin, Heekyong Yang, Reuters TV)
