Edited by Angeli Alexia
The Republic of Korea was founded in 1948 but early was involved in the Korean war, when North Korean troops entered the South to reunite the peninsula. The armistice was established in 1953, leading to a degree of peace. In 1960, popular discontent over electoral corruption led to a series of protests, culminating in Park Chung-hee‘s ascension to power through the first successful national coup d’etat on May 16, 1961. On October 26, 1979, he was assassinated. Choi Kyu-hah assumed the role, yet he was deposed by a subsequent military coup in May 1980. Chun Doo-Hwan came to power, instituting a dictatorship that was only halted by widespread demonstrations on May 18, 1980, resulting in numerous killings. The former leader was charged with mutiny and treason in 1995 and sentenced to death, a first in South Korean history. However, he was pardoned two years later in recognition of his role in the country’s rapid economic development. Since then, South Korea has been a presidential democracy. The 1987 Constitution stipulates a robust executive branch, thereby ensuring that the president’s removal is contingent upon a complex impeachment procedure.
This narrative began on May 10th, 2022 when the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol won the elections and assumed office as president. He became the first to be born after the end of the Korean war. During his tenure as President, a number of events served to weaken his power, such as the medical crisis, the Halloween crowd crush and the loss of the Parliamentary midterm elections. The nation has been proved to have undergone an authoritarian shift. On December 3, 2024 he declared the imposition of martial law amid a serious political deadlock. This action initiated a sequence of events that have persisted to the present day. He justified the decision to the nation by asserting that the National Assembly had become a den of criminals paralyzing government affairs, and vowed to eradicate his political rivals, who were identified as North Korea sympathizers. The following day, the Parliament unanimously rejected the declaration. Hours later, Yoon lifted it, but opposition parties decided nonetheless to submit a motion of impeachment. Three days after these events, the President apologised to the nation but did not resign. He put his fate in the hands of his party (the People Power Party) which boycotted the motion in the Parliament. On December 8, prosecutors announced a criminal investigation against Yoon and arrested the Minister of Defense, Kim Yong-hyun, who would attempt suicide. Two days later, a commander of the National Army disclosed to a Parliamentary committee that the President had ordered to “drag out” lawmakers from the Parliament. On December 12th, a new presidential declaration was released, accusing North Korea of hacking the nation’s electoral commission and manipulating the outcome of the parliamentary elections. In the following days, the Parliament decided to impeach Yoon with 204 out of 300 votes in favour – indicating a shift in position by at least 12 PPP members. The Constitutional Court started to revisit the case, with a period of 180 days allotted for the adjudication of the impeachment, determining whether to remove Yoon from office permanently or to reject the impeachment and reinstate him. After Christmas, also the acting President Han Duck-soo was impeached for obstructing the nomination of three justices to the Constitutional Court. On November 15, the Special Prosecutor requested 15 years of jail on charges of abetting insurrection and perjury.
At that point, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok assumed the role. Shortly before the advent of the New Year, the Court formally authorized the issuance of an arrest warrant against former President Yoon, after he failed to appear for questioning. After fifteen days of unsuccessful attempts, he turned himself in after the Court extended the warrant. On January 26, 2025, prosecutors indicted Yoon on insurrection charges and ordered his arrest; however, he would be released after 54 days.On April 4, the Constitutional Court ruled that the former President had violated his constitutional duty and removed him permanently from office. In June, new Presidential elections were held and Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic party, was declared as the winner. Just weeks later, a special prosecution team initiated a new case against Yoon for alleged attempted insurrection and he was sent again to detention. In August, his wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, was imprisoned due to corruption allegations, becoming the first presidential couple to be incarcerated in the nation’s history. A month later, the leader of South Korea’s Unification Church, Han Hak-ja, was accused of directly bribing Kim and was jailed. In October, Yoon was indicted on additional charges related to the imposition of martial law, including aiding an enemy state.