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People celebrate after President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment was accepted, near the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, on April 4, 2025.
South Korean president ousted, election looms
South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Friday voted unanimously to oust impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol over his decision to declare martial law in December. Supporters of Yoon who gathered near the presidential residence in Seoul reportedly cried out in disappointment as the court’s 8-0 decision was announced. Others cheered the ruling. The center-right leader is now the second South Korean president to be ousted.
South Korean authorities deployed a whopping 14,000 officers and 210 riot units throughout the capital to deal with expected mass protests and potential violence. Yoon did not attend the reading of the verdict, reportedly due to security concerns, but he accepted the decision. He expressed remorse for the way his time in office ended.
“I deeply regret not being able to live up to your hopes and expectations,” the former prosecutor said in a statement.
Yoon’s ouster caps a tumultuous period for South Korea. His martial law declaration marked the first time since 1980 that a South Korean leader had used such powers, and it triggered dark memories of the country’s military rule. Even though the declaration lasted just six hours, the National Assembly impeached Yoon in a bipartisan vote on the grounds that he violated his constitutional duty.
Friday’s ruling starts the clock for a presidential election within 60 days, during which time Han Duck-soo,prime minister and acting president, will remain at the helm.
Yoon faces more legal woes. The former president now faces criminal charges for alleged treason, marking the latest battle between the judicial branch and a political leader — and echoing similar clashes in Brazil, France, Israel, Romania, and the United States. Even if the Constitutional Court had ruled in Yoon’s favor, he still would have faced these charges, but the decision against him makes the case much more likely to proceed.Protesters demanded the ouster of South Korean President Yoon in central Seoul on March 29, 2025.
South Korean leader to learn his political fate on Friday
Controversy on the peninsula. The impeachment case revolves around whether Yoon unconstitutionally declared martial law on Dec. 3, a move that lasted all of six hours. The National Assembly, which is dominated by the center-left Democratic Party, impeached the center-right president 11 days after the incident on the grounds that he violated his constitutional duty (and did so with the support of a handful of lawmakers from Yoon’s own party). While many demonstrated against Yoon’s declaration of martial law, his conservative backers – a small but vocal minority – have taken to the streets in recent months to show their support for the president.
Don’t bet against Yoon’s removal from office. Six of the court’s eight justices need to vote for Yoon’s removal if he is to be removed from office, an outcome that Eurasia Group regional expert Jeremy Chan believes is more likely than not.
“Public support for Yoon’s removal remains high, and the legal merits of the case against Yoon are solid. Excusing his martial law declaration would also risk normalizing it for future leaders,” he said.
Should the court rule in Yoon’s favor, he would return to office immediately, but if the court rules against him, as expected, South Korea must hold presidential elections within 60 days. Regardless of the ruling, Yoon still faces criminal charges for alleged treason – the one charge for which a sitting president is not immune. While the legal system may stem the criminal proceedings if he retains his presidential immunity, it is far more likely to proceed if he is removed from office.
Schools will be closed Friday, and police will be out in force in anticipation of mass protests, which are likely no matter how the court rules, says Chan.
Sea change for Seoul? If Yoon’s impeachment is formalized, acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will remain at the helm until an election takes place this spring. Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, of the center-left, is the firm favorite to win at the polls. With a more dovish foreign policy stance, South Korea under Lee would likely seek warmer ties with China and North Korea, says Chan.
“Lee is a progressive populist who has been skeptical of the pro-US and pro-Japan tilt that South Korea’s foreign policy took under Yoon,” he said.
A barbed-wire fence is seen at the site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau prior to the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the camp in Brzezinka, Poland.
Hard Numbers: Commemorating Auschwitz liberation, South Korea’s Yoon indicted, Trump fires IGs, Germans protest far right, Rubio freezes US aid, Ancient statue trashed
80: Monday marks 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Dozens of survivors of the Nazi camp — where 960,000 Jews and 1.1 million people total were murdered — will be on hand for the commemoration alongside world leaders and royalty. The US Presidential Delegation includes Steve Witkoff, US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Howard Lutnick, nominee for Secretary of Commerce, and Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
1: Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted on Sunday, becoming the first sitting South Korean president formally charged while still in office. He faces charges of insurrection for briefly imposing martial law on Dec. 3. The indictment keeps Yoon in detention — something prosecutors decided to do after the court refused to extend Yoon’s arrest warrant.
18: Late Friday, the Trump White House fired 18 inspectors general, including IGs for the Defense Department, State Department, Health and Human Services Department, and the Department of Labor, sparing those at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. One of the fired IGs says he expects legal challenges to result, and, on Saturday, Democratic lawmakers decried the move as unlawful, expressing their “grave concern” in a letter to the president.
4,500: Protests erupted across Germany on Saturday in a “sea of light” rally against the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party ahead of the country’s general election on Feb. 23. The protests kicked off as the AfD launched its campaign, with party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla set to address an audience of 4,500 supporters in the central city of Halle. Billionaire Elon Musk again shared his support for AfD, appearing via video link at the event before Weidel’s speech.
60 billion: Sec. of State Marco Rubio ordered a freeze on US foreign aid on Friday, threatening what amounted to roughly $60 billion in 2023. While Rubio exempted emergency food programs, the move imperils aid used to support health, education, and development programs, as well as anti-corruption and security efforts. The full extent of the impact is still being assessed, and a review will be conducted over the next three months, resulting in Rubio making recommendations on future US foreign aid to President Donald Trump.
2,000: One man’s trash is indeed another man’s treasure. Archaeologists in Greece are analyzing a marble statue of a woman found in a garbage bag in Neoi Epivates, near the port city of Thessaloniki. The headless statue is believed to be more than 2,000 years old, dating from the Hellenistic era between 320 and 30 BCE. Once the evaluation is completed, the statue will be returned to the local antiquities authority for preservation and further study.
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of impeached South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol participate in a rally outside the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, South Korea, January 18, 2025.
Yoon dodges questioning after supporters storm court
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeolrefused to accompany police officers for questioning on Monday, after his supporters stormed a court that approved his continued detention on Sunday. Ninety people were detained during the clash, and other people who participated are being identified for prosecution.
The authorities might not have to search that hard. The rioters livestreamed themselves blasting lines of police with foam from fire extinguishers and entering the courthouse by force. They broke into at least one judge’s chamber during the brief incursion.
Yoon said through his lawyers that he found the rampage “shocking and unfortunate” but that he understood the “rage and unfairness” many Koreans felt. His lawyers have argued that his arrest last Wednesday was illegal and that the court has no jurisdiction in this matter.
Politics are in the most precarious place in years. While impeached, Yoon has still not been formally removed from office, and the long delay has allowed his political allies to consolidate. Elections will be held 60 days after Yoon is formally removed by the Constitutional Court.
In the meantime, markets are suffering through the uncertainty, and the central bank downgraded economic growth forecasts for the coming year to between 1.6% and 1.7%.South Korean President Yoon arrested
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by officers from the national corruption authority after an hours-long standoff on Wednesday morning. His detainment comes six weeks after his short-lived imposition of martial law, for which he was impeached and suspended from office, but his final removal is pending a ruling from the Constitutional Court.
Yoon, the first South Korean president to be arrested while technically still in office, was taken via motorcade to a detention center in the suburbs of Seoul. In a statement posted to social media, Yoon said he chose to submit to arrest to avoid violence, but he reportedly refused to answer questions during police interrogation. Police now have less than 48 hours to formally charge him before they must obtain a warrant to continue holding him.
Eurasia Group’s Jeremy Chan says Yoon can’t keep dragging his feet. “Now that he has been removed from his official residence, Yoon will likely be unable to avoid answering the questions of CIO investigators, the Constitutional Court, and parliamentary hearings.”
The arrest blows South Korea further into uncharted waters. When former President Park Geun-hye was impeached in 2017, prosecutors waited for her removal before bringing charges and arrest warrants. South Korean presidents may be arrested for insurrection, which is what Yoon is facing, but otherwise enjoy immunity from prosecution.
Part of the rush has to do with opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s own legal problems. If the Supreme Court rules against him in corruption cases related to his earlier political positions, he could be barred from standing for president — but if he can force Yoon out and hold elections in time, it renders the issue moot.
Still, Lee is looking like much less of a sure bet than he was in mid-December. His party’s support among voters has fallen from 52% in the beginning of December to 42% in January, barely ahead of Yoon’s party at 40%.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae Yul following their talks in Seoul on Jan. 6, 2025.
South Korean authorities get extension to Yoon arrest warrant
South Korean anti-corruption authorities reached a deal with police to extend their warrant against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday after failing to arrest him on Friday. A six-hour standoff with presidential security in the official residence amounted to nothing, and the corruption investigators have asked the National Police Agency to take over the responsibility of detaining Yoon. Authorities have not disclosed the new extension's expiration date.
Police are in uncharted waters, however, as no previous South Korean president has been arrested before being removed from office. Yoon was impeached in December, but vacancies on the constitutional court have prevented his official removal. Meanwhile, his party is playing for time – hoping to stall long enough to allow the high court to rule on a case that could render the opposition leader ineligible to run in elections to replace Yoon.
The gridlock is starting to chafe allies, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had expressed “serious concerns” during talks in Seoul with his counterpart on Monday. But Blinken also praised the strong response of South Korean institutions to Yoon’s attempt to seize power through martial law.
North Korea, which has taken a cautious approach thus far amid Seoul’s domestic upheaval, used Blinken’s visit as an opportunity to test a medium-range missile with a supposedly hypersonic capacity. We’re watching how Pyongyang approaches potential provocations once the Biden administration leaves the scene.
Police vans are lined up in front of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's official residence in Seoul on Jan. 3, 2025.
Authorities try to arrest impeached South Korean president
While reports indicated that officers were able to enter the building, they were stopped from executing the warrant by a military unit.
South Korea has sent multiple presidents to jail following their terms — in fact, two of the three presidents immediately before Yoon served time. But this arrest is unorthodox, says Eurasia Groupexpert Jeremy Chan. Usually, presidents have left office, either through impeachment or the end of their terms, before they are investigated on criminal charges.
“Yoon is a former public prosecutor who knows how to use the legal system,” says Chan. “His supporters are also rallying behind his claims that the insurrection investigation is invalid, further complicating efforts to seek his arrest.”
“The urgency with which the investigators have sought a warrant for Yoon's detention has also fed perceptions that politics rather than legal processes are to blame,” Chan adds.
Yoon has not yet been removed by the court because three of its seats were vacant. Former acting President Han Duck-soo refused to confirm their replacements, which led to him being impeached too, and his replacement agreed earlier this week to nominate for two of the three vacancies.
“Yoon will likely live to fight another day,” says Chan. But the Constitutional Court is also holding its second preparatory hearing for Yoon's impeachment trial on Friday. With eight justices, it is only a matter of time before the court rules to uphold the impeachment motion and formally remove Yoon from office.
“Today's standoff will likely only accelerate the urgency with which the court will proceed in making a ruling on the impeachment motion.”
Demonstrators opposing the court's approval of an arrest warrant for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol protest outside his official residence in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 31, 2024.
South Korea calls for arrest of former president
South Korea’s political drama continues into 2025 after the issuance ofan unprecedented arrest warrant against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol. Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning over the past two weeks on charges of insurrection and abuse of power. The charges stem from Yoon’s short-liveddeclaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, over what he deemed “anti-state forces” and obstructionism by opposition rivals.
Since then, South Korea has impeached two presidents, including Yoon, and threatened to impeach its finance minister, new acting President Choi Sang-mok. But on Tuesday, Choi appointed two justices to the Constitutional Court, making it less likely that he’ll face the chop. Now there are eight sitting justices, and only six are required to uphold Yoon’s impeachment. This, says Eurasia Group regional expert Jeremy Chan, means the ruling will likely be made by March.
The turmoil comes at a fraught time, as the country faces increased belligerence from North Korea, which is growing ever closer to Russia. South Korea is also reeling from Sunday’s Jeju Air crash landing at Muan International Airport, which killed 179 passengers.
What happens now? Yoon has until Jan. 3 to surrender voluntarily, but his legal team says it will challenge the warrant. Yoon’s allies say he will also fight the underlying charges, and his supporters have organized protests against what they call a politically motivated prosecution.
Oh Dong-woon, head of South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, warned that the arrest warrant against Yoon would be executed by Jan. 6, and that anyone seeking to block Yoon’s arrest could be prosecuted.
“Yoon will continue to defend the legitimacy of imposing martial law as a presidential prerogative while fighting against a separate criminal investigation into his actions,” says Chan. “He is nevertheless likely to face a lengthy imprisonment along with the officials who helped him plan and execute the martial law order.”