South Korea’s president is impeached

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The day of reckoning has arrived for Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president. The country’s National Assembly voted on December 14th to impeach him for his short-lived attempt to impose martial law earlier this month.

Outside the assembly, crowds of tens of thousands erupted into cheers and applause when the results were announced; demonstrators embraced and shed tears. “Into the New World", a hit K-pop-song-turned-protest anthem by Girls’ Generation, rang out from the speakers: “The end of wandering that I was longing for." The impeachment marks the end of an extraordinary ten days. Late on December 3rd, Mr Yoon declared martial law—only to pull back early the following morning in the face of opposition from the parliament, his own party and the public.

Mr Yoon’s party, the People’s Power Party (PPP), boycotted a first impeachment motion on December 7th. Following that disappointing result, “I was sad, so I went drinking," says Kim Seong-nam, an electronics-company employee who has come out to protest four times since the martial law declaration. Mr Yoon’s defiant stance in the ensuing week turned even some in his own party against him.

The PPP participated in the second impeachment proceeding, with 12 of its members voting in favour. That pushed the motion over the required two-thirds threshold, with 204 of 300 lawmakers voting to impeach the president. This time, “I am happy, so I’ll go drinking!" says Mr Kim.

Yet the turbulence is far from over. The affirmative vote in the assembly triggered Mr Yoon’s immediate suspension from office; the prime minster, Han Duck-soo, a career technocrat appointed by the PPP, has taken over as acting president. The impeachment now passes to the