South Korea's Constitutional Court on Friday upheld the impeachment of President Yoon-Suk Yeol, a conservative who had declared martial law in an effort to investigate alleged massive election fraud.
TV channels showed the acting chief justice, Moon Hyung-Tae, declaring: “The constitutional order and the repercussions from the defendant’s violations of the law are grave, making the benefits of protecting the Constitution by dismissing the defendant overwhelmingly larger than the national losses from dismissing the president.”
Thousands of police lined streets near the court, blocking protesters.
On an avenue near Yoon’s presidential residence, conservatives, many waving American and Korean flags, vowed to “fight for democracy” and “oppose the unjust decision of the traitorous court.”
Anti-Yoon demonstrators burst into cheers, waving signs in Korean saying “Victory” and “Democracy Wins.”
Yoon did not appear on TV but had his lawyers relay his apology for “not being able to live up to your hopes and expectations.” It was, he said, “the greatest honor of my life to serve our nation” and he was “sincerely grateful for your unwavering support and encouragement.”
"South Korea opened the second act of its agonizing leadership crisis with the ouster of Yoon Suk-Yeol as president on the day after President Trump imposed devastating tariffs that are sure to fuel the presidential ambitions of the opposition leader primarily responsible for Yoon’s downfall four months after his ill-conceived attempt at bringing Free Korea’s fledgling democracy under martial law," Donald Kirk noted in a Friday analysis for the New York Sun.
The leftist leader of the Democratic Party, or Minju, Lee Jae-Myung, praised the court for its “wise decision.” Lee had engineered Yoon's impeachment in the National Assembly in retaliation for Yoon’s martial law decree of Dec. 3, which he rescinded six hours after issuing it.
"Yoon’s precipitous fall from grace ends his presidency more than three years after he was elected president over Lee, promising to restore close military ties with South Korea’s American ally and pursue tough defenses against North Korea," noted Kirk, a WorldTribune.com contributing editor.
Lee, considered the frontrunner to replace Yoon, is facing multiple criminal charges of corruption in real estate and political dealings in his days as governor of the province surrounding Seoul and mayor of a city just south of the capital.
The snap election must be held within 60 days of Yoon’s ouster.
"The tariffs imposed by Trump should make it far easier for Korean leftists to cool down the warm ties that Yoon had formed with Washington," Kirk noted.
South Korea Foreign Minister Cho Tae-Yul, in a meeting in Brussels with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Imaya, asked Washington to reconsider raising tariffs considering "the implications for its allies, the importance of close South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation, economic collaboration and South Korea’s track record of investment in the U.S.," according to the foreign ministry in Seoul.
"The views of Cho, as a member of the conservative government that Yoon put into place, were likely to be far more measured than those of proteges of Lee and others in the Minju, many of whom were jailed in their youths for opposing quasi-dictatorial regimes," Kirk noted.
The government in Seoul for now remains in the hands of the acting president, Han Duck-Soo, "a cautious bureaucrat with a long career in economic affairs," Kirk added.
Han promised to do “my utmost to oversee a smooth and fair presidential election” and asked bureaucrats to remain “neutral” politically.
The free world is about to lose Korea to China, North Korea, and dictatorship. We cannot let that happen.
— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) April 4, 2025
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