Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol
On 14 December 2024, Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, was impeached by the National Assembly following the passage of an impeachment bill with 204 of the 300 members voting in favor. This action came in response to Yoon's declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo assumed the role of acting president pending the Constitutional Court's decision on whether to accept the impeachment. Han was himself impeached on 27 December 2024, and first deputy prime minister Choi Sang-mok became acting president. On 24 March 2025, Han was acquitted by the Constitutional Court and returned to the role of acting president.
The court upheld the impeachment of Yoon in a unanimous 8-0 decision on 4 April 2025, removing Yoon from office. Thus, Han continued as acting president until resigning, along with Choi, on 1 May 2025, which left second deputy prime minister Lee Ju-ho as acting president. The court determined that Yoon's five major illegal acts, including ordering the military and police to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly, ordering the arrest of judges and Supreme Court justices, and illegally declaring martial law, were serious violations of the Constitution. Per the Constitution, a snap election was held on 3 June 2025, 60 days after Yoon's removal, with Lee Jae Myung being elected to succeed Yoon as president.
An earlier impeachment motion was put to a parliamentary vote on 7 December 2024, but failed because the number of attending legislators did not meet the quorum required for its passage, as members of the ruling People Power Party boycotted the vote.
Opinion polling on the Yoon Suk Yeol presidency throughout 2024 was increasingly negative. The declaration of martial law hardened these views, with many surveyed in South Korea believing Yoon should resign voluntarily, or that he should be formally removed from office.
Background
has been governed as a presidential democracy under the 1987 constitution, which provides for a strong independent executive. As a result, presidents can only be removed by a difficult impeachment process, rather than a simple vote of no confidence. Only one Korean president, Park Geun-hye, had previously been removed from office through impeachment, which occurred in 2017, also with a unanimous 8-0 decision of the Constitutional Court. Before being impeached himself, Yoon assisted in the prosecution of Park. Roh Moo-hyun was impeached in 2004 on accusations of illegal electioneering, incompetence, and economic mismanagement. However, the Constitutional Court cleared him of two infractions and deemed the remaining charge not serious enough to warrant removal, allowing him to remain in office.Impeachment procedure
The procedure for impeachment is set out in the 10th Constitution of South Korea in 1987. Article 65, Clause 1, specifies that the National Assembly may impeach the president, prime minister, or other state officials if they violate the constitution or other laws while performing official duties.For an impeachment motion against a sitting president to pass, a majority of the National Assembly must propose it, and a two-thirds supermajority200 out of 300 membersmust vote in favor. Once passed, the individual is immediately suspended from their duties pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Korea. The scope of impeachment is limited to removal from public office, with no further penalties imposed through this process.
According to the Constitutional Court Act passed in 1988, the Constitutional Court must render a decision within 180 days after it receives any case for adjudication, including impeachment cases. If the respondent has already left office before the decision, the case is dismissed. Formal removal of the president requires six of the nine justices voting in favor. Due to one vacancy, President Yoon Suk Yeol's removal needed six out of eight judges to vote to dismiss him. Article 23 of the Constitutional Court Act requires at least seven justices for deliberation.
If the National Assembly impeaches the president, the president is immediately suspended from office, with the prime minister assuming the role of acting president. In the event of the president's resignation or removal by the Constitutional Court, an early presidential election is required to be held within 60 days. During this interim period, the prime minister continues to serve as acting president until the election of a new president.
Previous calls to impeach Yoon
In July 2024, an online petition started on the National Assembly's website calling for Yoon's impeachment gathered over a million signatures, with all petitions with over 50,000 signatures required under law to be reviewed by a parliamentary committee. The website crashed, with over 22,000 people concurrently waiting to access the website with an estimated wait time of 30 minutes. In November 2024, over 3,000 professors and researchers at various universities signed a letter asking Yoon to resign. One interviewer speculated that the letter had received the highest number of signatures from academics since protests during the Park Geun-hye administration. On 28 November, 1,466 South Korean Catholic priests also called for Yoon to be impeached, issuing a statement titled "How could a person be like this", which claimed that he is a puppet of private interests who has no idea what he does or who he is and who had handed over the authority entrusted to him by the people to his wife.Martial law declaration
On 3 December, Yoon declared martial law in South Korea, stating that martial law was necessary to defend the country from anti-state forces. Military and police forces attempted to prevent legislators from entering the National Assembly Proceeding Hall, causing clashes between the security forces, protesters, and legislative aides. All 190 legislators who were present in the chamber unanimously voted to demand the lifting of martial law, forcing Yoon to lift martial law around 04:00 KST on 4 December.Impeachment
First motion
Following the martial law declaration, all six opposition partiesthe Democratic Party, Rebuilding Korea Party, New Reform Party, Progressive Party, Basic Income Party, and Social Democratic Partysubmitted the motion to impeach Yoon during a plenary session of the National Assembly on 4 December. The vote was set for 7 December.Following an emergency meeting of the PPP, its leader, Han Dong-hoon, initially announced the party's unanimous opposition to the impeachment efforts. However, on 6 December, Han revealed that the PPP had received evidence indicating that Yoon had ordered Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung to arrest key politicians, including Han himself, on "anti-state charges" during martial law and detain them in Gwacheon, prompting Han to call on Yoon to "suspend his duties soon" and warning that citizens could be in "great danger" if Yoon remained in office.
Hours before the National Assembly convened on 7 December, Yoon apologized for declaring martial law, describing it as "desperate decision made by me, the president, as the final authority responsible for state affairs" and promising there would not be a second declaration of martial law. He also pledged to delegate his political functions to the PPP. DPK leader and main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung called the apology "disappointing" and insisted on Yoon's resignation or impeachment. He also criticized Yoon's power-sharing arrangement with the PPP as "destroying the constitutional order", while DPK Floor Leader Park Chan-dae called the arrangement a "second coup". Prior to the impeachment vote, a motion was discussed on whether to launch a special counsel investigation on Yoon's wife Kim Keon-hee but ultimately failed due to opposition by the PPP.
Before voting began, all PPP lawmakers except one, Ahn Cheol-soo, left the voting chamber, meaning the bill would be unlikely to pass. This came amid the possibility of PPP lawmakers deviating from the party's position through the secret balloting process. left but later returned; Kim Sang-wook returned to vote but said he voted against impeachment. Protesters attempted to block the exits of the National Assembly Proceeding Hall as PPP lawmakers left, calling the leaving lawmakers "cowards" and encouraging them to vote. Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Kim Joon-hyung said that he expected voting to go on until 00:00 KST on 8 December at the latest; the deadline to vote was 00:48 KST, three days after the motion was introduced.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik closed voting early at 21:20 KST and initially announced the start of counting shortly afterward. He then announced that votes would not be counted because the PPP boycott left the Assembly without a quorum, with only 195 members present of the 200 needed.
Between motions
Following the first impeachment motion, PPP Leader Han Dong-hoon said that the PPP would continue to "push for the president's orderly retreat to minimize chaos", while PPP Floor Leader Choo Kyung-ho resigned, saying that he would take responsibility for "the third presidential impeachment vote in constitutional history". Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that he would "make all-out efforts to promptly stabilize the current situation". The DPK said that it would continue to file impeachment motions against Yoon on a weekly basis.On 8 December, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun was arrested by prosecutors on suspicion of committing insurrection by advising President Yoon to declare martial law and sending troops into the National Assembly to seize the legislature. That same day, Han Dong-hoon said that the PPP had "effectively obtained promise to step down" in exchange for the party blocking his impeachment. A PPP special task force proposed that Yoon leave office in February or March 2025 and called for a snap presidential election to be held in April or May.
On 10 December, the National Assembly passed a bill creating a permanent special counsel to investigate Yoon on charges of treason relating to his martial law declaration. The motion passed with 210 MPs, including 23 PPP members, in favor after the party allowed its members to vote according to their individual decision. On 12 December, Yoon issued a statement vowing to "fight to the end", resisting the push for his resignation. Following Yoon's statement, Han Dong-hoon called for Yoon's impeachment and convened an ethics committee to discuss Yoon's expulsion from the PPP.