South Korea roiled by short-lived martial law

What happened

Opposition parties in South Korea's National Assembly filed an impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol today, calling his six-hour imposition of martial law a "clear violation of the constitution" and a "grave act of rebellion." Yoon withdrew his widely condemned martial law declaration early Wednesday after a majority of lawmakers managed to push into the military-encircled parliament overnight and voted 190-0 to nullify the decree.

Who said what

Yoon said in a surprise address Tuesday night that he was declaring "emergency martial law" to "safeguard a liberal South Korea" and "eliminate anti-state elements." He also mentioned threats from North Korea, but "it soon became clear" he was responding to "his own desperate political troubles," the BBC said. Yoon, narrowly elected in 2022 and deeply unpopular now, "has been a lame duck president" since the opposition Democratic Party won decisive control of parliament in April elections, throttling his legislative agenda.

Yoon's martial law declaration, which "appeared to be a poorly-thought-out stunt," was the "first of its kind" since 1979 and "harkened to South Korea's past military-backed governments," which few wished to see again, The Associated Press said. Thousands of demonstrators who confronted the military and massed around parliament overnight demanded Yoon step down, with some calling for his arrest.

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What next?

It would take 201 of the National Assembly's 300 members to impeach Yoon, then six of nine Constitutional Court justices to remove him from office. His decree was "a serious backslide of democracy," but South Korea "is no stranger to mass protests and swift impeachments," Korea analyst Natalia Slavney said to the AP. Yoon was the lead prosecutor in the corruption case that led to President Park Geun-hye's 2017 ouster and imprisonment.