Court upholds South Korea president’s impeachment, strips him of office

South Korea’s Constitutional Court, on Friday, April 4, 2025, upheld President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment over his disastrous martial law declaration.

The court voted unanimously to strip President Yoon of office for violating the constitution.

Yoon, 64, was suspended by lawmakers over his December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament. He was also arrested on insurrection charges as part of a separate criminal case.

His removal triggers fresh presidential elections, which must be held within 60 days.

“Given the serious negative impact and far-reaching consequences of the respondent’s constitutional violations, we dismiss respondent President Yoon Suk Yeol,” said acting court President Moon Hyung-bae.

The decision was unanimous by all eight of the court’s judges, who have been given additional security protection by police, with tensions high and pro-Yoon supporters rallying in the streets.

Yoon’s actions “violate the core principles of the rule of law and democratic governance, thereby undermining the constitutional order itself and posing a grave threat to the stability of the democratic republic,” the judges said in their ruling.

Yoon’s decision to send armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree “violated the political neutrality of the armed forces and the duty of supreme command.”

South Korea court rules on president’s impeachment Friday

He deployed troops for “political purposes”, the judges said, which “caused soldiers who had served the country with the mission of ensuring national security and defending the country to confront ordinary citizens.”

“In the end, the respondent’s unconstitutional and illegal acts are a betrayal of the people’s trust and constitute a serious violation of the law that cannot be tolerated from the perspective of protecting the Constitution,” the judges ruled.

Yoon is the second South Korean leader to be impeached by the court after Park Geun-hye in 2017.

After weeks of tense hearings, judges spent more than a month deliberating the case, all while public unrest swelled.

Anti-Yoon protesters cried, cheered, and screamed as the verdict was announced on Friday. Some jumped and shook each other’s hands in joy, while others hugged people and cried.

Outside Yoon’s residence, his supporters shouted and swore, with some bursting into tears as the verdict was announced.

Since December, South Korea has been “partially paralysed – it has been without a legitimate president and has been challenged by natural disasters and the political disaster called Trump,” Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, Vladimir Tikhonov, told AFP.

The Star