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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is definitively out of office.
The impeachment of the conservative leader was upheld Friday, ending four months of intense, but almost entirely peaceful, political drama.
The country’s Constitutional Court judges, citing “negative effects on the constitutional order” and “grave violations of the law” unanimously ruled to uphold his impeachment, which followed his shock attempt to apply martial law on the night of Dec. 3 last year.
With Mr. Yoon out — and facing a questionable legal future — the country must hold a presidential election within 60 days.
Tens of thousands of anti-Yoon protesters who had gathered and crowded streets in the Seoul’s Anguk area, near the Constitutional Court, burst into cheers, danced, and waved signage and the national flag as the verdict was announced at 11:22 a.m. local time.
So heavy was online traffic that the country’s most popular app, Kakao, reportedly suffered temporary service problems. Post-verdict, the nation’s military began removing Mr. Yoon’s portraits from base walls.
The court’s decision ends an extraordinary political drama.
Mr. Yoon, whose agenda had been obstructed since parliamentary elections last spring, handed the progressive Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) decisive control of the National Assembly, declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3.
Elite troops were deployed to the National Assembly and the National Electoral Commission. But Assembly representatives gathered and, under the cover of furious crowds who gathered outside the gates, massed a quorum and voted to overturn the decree.
Mr. Yoon withdrew it six hours later and handed over power to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. The president was impeached by a bipartisan National Assembly vote on Dec. 14.
A strange ambience prevailed in central Seoul on Friday morning as the nation awaited the court decision.
The downtown business district, normally bustling, was deserted: traffic had been rerouted. The city’s top heritage sites, its restored medieval palaces, were shuttered for the day.
The vast Gwanghwamun Plaza was virtually empty. The U.S. Embassy, facing the plaza, was cordoned off with police buses.
Some 14,000 officers were deployed to the area, from a nationwide force of 130,000.
Squads of police in high-visibility yellow jackets, standing behind their Roman legion-style shields, were dispersed around the area. More police, and even fire engines, were stationed in the alleys off the plaza.
A “vacuum zone” had been established around the court, in the adjacent Anguk neighborhood. The court was sealed off with a wall of police buses, parked bumper-to-bumper.
That did not stop tens of thousands of anti-Yoon protesters from gathering in Anguk’s main street to await the verdict. A smaller pro-Yoon crowd gathered at Gwanghwamun’s landmark intersection.
The court’s eight judges, in red capes, sat as the verdict was read by Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae.
Mr. Yoon’s legal defense team, and their opponents in the National Assembly prosecution team, watched impassively.
“The negative effects on 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 larger than the national losses from dismissing the president by an overwhelming degree,” Chief Justice Moon told the court and the national public, watching his delivery on live TV.
“Yoon’s exercise of emergency powers cannot be justified,” he added.
The unanimous verdict was a surprise, given how long it had taken to reach: 38 days, compared to prior impeachment verdicts, which had taken just 11 and 14 days.
The court has a bench of nine, but only eight judges were sitting. Six votes were required to uphold the impeachment.
As the court’s deliberations dragged on in recent weeks, rumors spread of the judges refusing to dine or drink coffee with each other, hinting at internal divisions.
After the verdict was announced, Mr. Han read a short statement accepting the decision. He will oversee the country during the upcoming presidential race.
An election must, constitutionally, be held within 60 days.
Per recent polls, the favorite to win is DPK leader Lee Jae-myung. The party hailed the court decision as “a victory for the people.”
Who will represent Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party in the race is not yet clear.
The country has been led by a caretaker government since last December. Post-election, Seoul’s new leadership will be able to establish relationships with the Trump administration and set national policies accordingly.
Mr. Yoon, who faces separate criminal charges of insurrection, attended neither the court nor appeared in public, but released a short statement of “deep regret” via his lawyers.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve our nation,” it read. “I am sincerely grateful for your unwavering support and encouragement, even when I fell short.”
A coalition of supporters, based around Christian and patriotic groups who have held mass demonstrations favoring Mr. Yoon, was downcast.
“We’re stunned, shocked, speechless,” said Kim Chul-hong, an academic and organizer.
He said his group would resume protests and would rally to support the right’s candidate in the upcoming election to be held by June 3.
But he had concerns. “We only have two months,” he said.
Mr. Yoon, who faces separate criminal charges of insurrection, did not attend the verdict and did not immediately appear in public or make a statement.
Though the country is deeply polarized, South Korea mastered its months-long political crisis with flying colors. Besides one court invasion by Yoon supporters that resulted in minor damage and a handful of injuries, the entire drama passed without significant violence.
That continued Friday: By mid-afternoon, central Seoul was nearly empty.
Many staffers of offices in downtown had worked from home, and crowds evaporated after the verdict, leaving a massive police presence to protect the court.
Of Korea’s last five presidents, two have been overthrown, one has committed suicide and three have been put behind bars.
“Koreans have suffered a lot of political upheavals and disorder: dynastic history, colonial deprivation and ideological war,” said Yang Sun-mok, a former foreign affairs adviser to the DPK. “Koreans are not patient with tyrannies or authoritarianism, they have no tolerance for bad presidents: They want equality and equity.”
A handful of hardcore protesters on both sides lingered.
“We cannot accept the impeachment, we cannot accept the verdict, we cannot accept the 8-0 unanimous decision,” said Jong Chang-ok, 62, a volunteer at a school for disadvantaged children who was hanging around a tent of pro-Yoon supporters near the court. “This was a decision by judges who are pro-North Korean leftists — and were probably bribed.”
“I expected the verdict as a matter of course,” said Choi Young-ung, a farmers’ union official, speaking beside a cheery group celebrating the decision with rural folk dances near the Japanese Embassy. “All Korean people watched martial law on live TV — it makes no sense to deny it.”
Regarding the likelihood of a Lee presidency, Mr. Choi said, “I expect he will eradicate the cruel Japanese sympathizers in government and media who inherited their privileges.”
One of Mr. Yoon’s standout policies, strongly opposed by Mr. Lee, was the improvement of relations with Tokyo. That enabled a nascent trilateral security partnership with the United States.
Mr. Jong offered a different outlook. Calling Mr. Lee’s national leadership “unthinkable,” he said, “A free Republic of Korea would be over.”
One foreign observer suggested that Friday’s process was an advance on the prior impeachment of Park Geun-hye in 2017, when the voice of public opinion had been largely one-sided.
“One characteristic of Korean democracy is the power of public sentiment, which has a huge influence over institutions to the point where courts bend in the wind,” said Michael Breen, author of ‘The New Koreans.’ “What happened this time, was voice was split, so the court was able to pass judgment without popular or political influence.”
Regarding the hardline positions of Mr. Jong and Mr. Choi, he said, “I dare say there are in a minority — they are not on the street.”
However, he did caution that knives are out for Mr. Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, who is accused of corruption and influence peddling.
“There is a nasty side to Korean political culture, but generally, I do not see chaos.”
