South Korea vote to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol fails

As National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik closed the session, which had been adjourned for hours due to the governing party’s boycott of the vote, a motion to remove South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was defeated.

Nearly all 108 members of Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) walked out of the chamber before the vote on Saturday, prompting angry reactions from opposition legislators, with some accusing them of being “accomplices to insurrection”.

“We cannot repeat another tragedy of paralised government”, said a spokesperson for South Korea’s ruling party after the vote fell through, prompting the PPP’s floor leader, Choo, to offer his resignation.

The embattled leader apologized for his lone attempt to impose martial law earlier this week, but the walkout came just hours after.

A bill to investigate First Lady Kim Keon-hee, who is viewed as a force behind Yoon’s decision to impose martial law, was up for vote earlier, but it was rejected. Following that vote, the PPP parliamentarians left.

Derailing the impeachment

A two-thirds majority was necessary for the opposition to pass the impeachment motion. Opposition parties control 192 of the legislature’s 300 seats, meaning they needed at least eight additional votes from Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP).

According to Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, who was in Seoul earlier on Saturday, “so far this vote seems to be derailing the impeachment process,” adding that only one governing party official remained in the chamber at the time of the vote.

Speaker Woo resisted making a statement about the outcome, instead pressing PPP lawmakers to go back “to protect the Republic of Korea and its democracy.”

The chair of the PPP, Han Dong-hoon, had called for Yoon’s removal on Friday, but the party remained formally opposed to impeachment.

Han claimed to have learned that Yoon had ordered the nation’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unnamed key politicians based on “antistate activities” during the brief period of martial law.

Protesters called for the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol]Kim Hong-ji/Reuters]

Following Yoon’s televised apology on Saturday, in which he said the decision was born of “desperation”, Han reiterated his call for him to step down.

“President Yoon Suk Yeol’s early resignation is inevitable”, Han told reporters, adding that Yoon was not in a state to carry out official duties.

Slide towards authoritarianism

The vote took place as tens of thousands of people packed streets near the National Assembly, waving banners, shouting slogans, dancing and singing along to K-pop songs with lyrics changed to call for Yoon’s removal.

A smaller crowd of Yoon’s supporters, which still seemed to be in the thousands, rallied in separate streets in Seoul, decrying the impeachment attempt they saw as unconstitutional.

A protester attends a rally to condemn South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's surprise declarations of the failed martial law and to call for his resignation in Seoul, South Korea, December 5, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon — A protester in Seoul on December 5, 2024, calls for Yoon Suk Yeol’s surprise declaration of martial law and resigns [Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters]

Opposition legislators accuse Yoon of a slide towards authoritarianism.

The president’s announcement of martial law on Tuesday night shocked the country by imposing it on the military. The goal was to “eradicate the shameless pro-North antistate forces” and to “cease the spread of unspecified threats from the country’s communist forces.”

Scuffles broke out as staffers and legislators tried to enter the main parliament at some point after midnight, using office furniture as barricades.

On Wednesday, legislators voted 190-0 to overturn Yoon’s declaration, and demonstrators poured onto the streets before Yoon declared he would lift martial law.