What comes next for Yoon Suk-yeol, the South Korean president who declared martial law?
The morning after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law — then stood down — his political future was swiftly unraveling.
Opposition lawmakers have filed insurrection charges against Yoon and are also moving to impeach him. Some in his own conservative People Power Party have called for his expulsion from the party.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, a key force in the mass protests that ousted corrupt conservative President Park Geun-hye in 2017, has called on its 1.1 million members to strike until Yoon resigns.
“Considering what happened yesterday, I don’t think he’s going to voluntarily step down,” said Ha Sang-eung, a political scientist at Sogang University in Seoul. “But it’s also going to be very difficult for him to dig in his heels and wait it out.”
Here’s what may come next for the South Korean president.
Impeachment
On Wednesday afternoon — less than 17 hours after Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law — opposition lawmakers proposed a motion to impeach him.
They argued that his order violated the constitution, which says that the president can only declare martial law during wartime or a crisis of equivalent gravity. Yoon had tried to justify his decree with accusations that lawmakers were paralyzing his government, sympathizing with North Korea and refusing to pass his budget.
Impeachment requires the support of at least two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly — or 200 votes. The opposition coalition holds 192.
It’s not out of the question that at least eight members of Yoon’s own party could turn against him to pass the impeachment motion.
The party officially declined to support the ousting attempt late Wednesday night. That may be because removing Yoon from office would effectively hand the presidency to liberal party leader Lee Jae-myung, whom conservatives have also accused of being corrupt.
