South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a string of legal battles as the suspended leader fights to save his political career – and avoid prison – following his brief imposition of martial law last year.
Yoon’s December 3 decree threw South Korea into turmoil when he banned political activity and sent troops to the heart of the nation’s democracy – only to reverse the move within six hours after lawmakers forced their way into parliament and voted unanimously to block it.
The decree was swiftly met by widespread public anger, reviving painful memories of strongmen leaders who curtailed rights and freedoms in the country after the Korean War until its transition to democracy in the late 1980s.
Even several members of Yoon’s own conservative ruling party turned on him. On December 14, parliament voted to impeach him, suspending his presidential powers.
But a defiant Yoon has vowed to “fight to the end,” as the country’s top court reviews his impeachment and as he also appears in a separate criminal trial for insurrection.
Here’s what we know.
What’s happening in Yoon’s impeachment trial?
South Korea’s Constitutional Court will decide whether to remove Yoon from office permanently or reinstate him. It is now reviewing his impeachment by parliament after hearing weeks of testimony by high-ranking current and former officials.
Lawyers for parliament have argued that if Yoon is reinstated, he could try to impose martial law again or undermine constitutional institutions.
Yoon has argued that he had a right as president to issue his martial law decree. The former prosecutor-turned-politician said his move was justified by political deadlock and threats from “anti-state forces” sympathetic to North Korea.
Lawyers for Yoon have also argued that he never actually intended to stop parliament from operating, even though the order was publicly declared, and troops and police were deployed to the legislature.
Yoon also sent troops to the National Election Commission and later said the decree was necessary, in part, because the body had been unwilling to address concerns over election hacking, a claim rejected by election officials.
A ruling in the impeachment case is expected in March.
If the Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment, he would become the shortest-serving president in South Korea’s democratic history, having taken office in May 2022. The country must then hold new presidential elections within 60 days.
If Yoon’s impeachment is upheld, it would also remove his immunity from most criminal charges.
What other charges does he face?
Prosecutors indicted Yoon on separate criminal charges related to his martial law decree of leading an insurrection. He was arrested in January after a weeks-long standoff between investigators and his presidential security team. He has since been held in solitary confinement at a detention center near Seoul.
Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades.
The indictment alleges that Yoon’s imposition of martial law was an illegal attempt to shut down the National Assembly and arrest politicians and election authorities. Yoon has said his decree was intended as a temporary warning to the liberal opposition and that he always planned to respect lawmakers’ will if they voted to lift the measure.
Yoon’s lawyers have also repeatedly argued that his arrest was politically motivated and that the warrant was invalid because of flaws in the way the investigation was conducted.
The next preliminary hearing for the criminal proceedings is set for the end of March.
Yoon’s insurrection trial is expected to take months. A verdict could be reached by late 2025 or early 2026, according to legal analysts.
Meanwhile, the court is reviewing a request by Yoon’s lawyers to revoke his arrest order and release him from custody, though such challenges are rarely successful.
What important details did we learn from Yoon’s trial?
The impeachment proceedings offered dramatic details illustrating how Yoon and the military enacted the ultimately short-lived martial law order.
South Korea’s former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said it was he, not the president, who first proposed the ill-fated brief period of military rule.
Kim said he wrote the controversial decree himself, which included a sweeping ban of political activity across South Korea.
“All political activities, including the activities of the National Assembly, local councils, and political parties, political associations, rallies and demonstrations, are prohibited,” the martial law decree said.
Both Yoon and Kim strongly denied ordering military commanders to “drag out” lawmakers inside the National Assembly. However, former Army Commander Kwak Jong-geun consistently testified he received direct orders from Yoon himself to forcibly remove assembly members.
Kim and lawyers for Yoon maintained the order was misheard – arguing the Korean word for lawmakers was confused with the similar sounding word for agents or soldiers.
Former first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Hong Jang-won also repeatedly testified Yoon told him to take advantage of martial law. He said Yoon described it as an opportunity to “arrest” a list of 14 political and legal adversaries and to “clean everything up” – which Yoon denies.
Is that all of Yoon’s legal troubles?
Possibly not: Yoon also faces the prospect of another legal battle.
Police have been investigating Yoon on suspicion of the special obstruction of public duty since around January 3, a police spokesperson told Reuters on February 22.
The crime is punishable by up to five years in jail.
A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Yoon on December 31 in the criminal investigation over his martial law decree. The warrant, however, was not executed until January 15 after Yoon did not comply, remaining holed up in his heavily fortified presidential compound as the Presidential Security Service blocked investigators for days.
In the months since Yoon’s martial law declaration, South Korea has been in political disarray with parliament also voting to impeach its prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok is now acting president.
Additional reporting by Reuters and the Associated Press.
