South Korea's Constitutional Court Upholds Yoon Suk Yeol's Impeachment

South Korea’s Constitutional Court unanimously removed Yoon Suk Yeol from office Friday, ending his tumultuous presidency and setting up a new election, four months after he threw the nation into turmoil with an ill-fated declaration of martial law in December. 

The verdict capped a dramatic fall for Yoon (right), a former star prosecutor who became president in 2022, just a year after he entered politics. 

In a nationally televised hearing, the court’s acting chief Moon Hyung-bae said the eight-member bench found Yoon’s actions were unconstitutional and had a grave impact. The ruling means that the acting president, Han Duck-soo, will remain in office until South Koreans elect a new leader within 60 days.

But a festering divide over Yoon’s impeachment could complicate South Korea’s efforts to deal with critical issues like US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and other “America First” policies, observers say. 

Yoon said in a statement issued via his defense team that he deeply regrets failing to live up to the public’s expectations, but stopped short of explicitly accepting the verdict. There have been fears he would incite efforts to resist his removal, as he earlier vowed to fight to the end.

Note that Yoon cannot appeal and must now turn his attention to a separate criminal trial – linked to his martial law declaration – on charges of insurrection. 

Yoon is the second South Korean president to be removed from office through impeachment after Park Geun-hye in 2017. If found guilty in his criminal trial, he faces life imprisonment or the death penalty, although South Korea has not carried out an execution since the late 1990s.

And so, Yoon may be out – but he leaves behind a polarised country.