Presidential crisis: South Korea: Impeachment proceedings fail in parliament

In South Korea, the motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament. Shortly before the vote, almost all members of the ruling party left the plenary hall to boycott it. In the end, only 195 of the 300 parliamentarians cast their votes. The motion therefore missed the quorum by five votes.

So Yoon remains president for now. But public pressure against the 63-year-old is unlikely to let up in the coming days. There were once again many demonstrators in front of the parliament building who loudly called for Yoon’s impeachment. According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, more than 100,000 people marched in front of the parliament building as of Saturday evening (local time). So far the protests have remained peaceful.

That morning, Yoon apologized to his people for temporarily imposing martial law in a televised speech. He also promised that something like this would not happen again under his leadership. He will take “legal and political responsibility” for his actions and leave it to his party to decide how long he should remain in office.

Late on Tuesday evening (local time), Yoon surprisingly put martial law into effect and lifted it again a few hours later after massive political resistance. It was the first time since South Korea’s transition to democracy in the late 1980s that the country’s head of state declared martial law.

The largest opposition party accuses the conservative Yoon of violating the constitution and is calling for his immediate resignation.