South Korea’s opposition moved to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday after his extraordinary but short-lived imposition of martial law that brought thousands of protesters to the streets.
Yoon’s shock bid to suspend civilian rule for the first time in over four decades — before being overturned by lawmakers in a night of drama — plunged South Korea into deep turmoil and alarmed its close allies.
The future of Yoon, a conservative politician and former star public prosecutor who was elected president in 2022, is now highly uncertain.
South Korea’s opposition parties — whose lawmakers jumped fences and tussled with security forces to vote down the law — on Wednesday filed a motion to impeach Yoon.
“We’ve submitted an impeachment motion prepared urgently,” said Kim Yong-min from the opposition Democratic Party (DP).
They were yet to decide when to put it to a vote, but it could come as soon as Friday.
The opposition holds a large majority in the 300-member parliament and needs only a handful of defections from the president’s party to secure the two-thirds majority needed to pass the motion.
