Lawmakers move to impeach leader after martial law bid

Members of opposition parties demonstrate outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday to call for President Yoon Suk Yeol to step down. Shortly after he attempted to impose martial law, lawmakers forced him to call it off. Yoon's location was not known Wednesday night. Chang W. Lee - The New York Times

By CHOE SANG-HUN, JOHN YOON, VICTORIA KIM AND THOMAS FULLER | THE NEW YORK TIMES

SEOUL, South Korea - Emboldened by their rejection of military rule, members of South Korea's political opposition moved Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, after his abrupt declaration of martial law failed spectacularly.

Several opposition parties, buoyed by thousands of protesters who took to the streets to denounce the president, jointly submitted the impeachment motion, which could be put to a vote as early as Friday. While the parties represent an overwhelming majority of the National Assembly, it remains unclear whether they will have the two-thirds vote needed to impeach.

Yoon's surprise declaration of martial law Tuesday night, the first attempt to impose military rule in more than four decades, incited chaos within one of the United States' closest allies and evoked memories of the dictatorial regimes that ruled South Korea until the 1980s.

It was an audacious attempt by the president to break the gridlock in government - between a mostly progressive assembly and a conservative executive - that has hobbled his nearly three years in power. But in the end, martial law lasted only six hours. It backfired when lawmakers scrambled past heavily armed troops who had attempted to cordon off the assembly building. The 190 members present, out of 300 total, voted unanimously to rescind military rule - including 18 members from the president's own party.

Yoon's location was not known Wednesday night and he seemed increasingly isolated. Members of his own party had denounced the martial law declaration and voted to overturn it. South Korean news media reported that the defense minister and several top aides to the president, including his chief of staff, had resigned.

If two-thirds of the assemblyvotes to impeach Yoon, he would be suspended from office and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a career civil servant, would become the interim president. The president's fate would then go to the Constitutional Court, where the justices could uphold the impeachment and remove him from office, or reject it and reinstate him.

Opposition parties control 192 of the 300 assembly seats, just short of a two-thirds majority, so impeachment would require at least eight defections from Yoon's own People Power Party, which holds 108 seats.

The imposition of military rule Tuesday night was the shortest-lived and most bizarre martial law in the history of South Korea, which has had its share of coups and military rule before it became a vibrant democracy after military dictatorship ended in the late 1980s.

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