Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, who was impeached in December over his failed attempt to impose martial law, will learn on Friday whether he will be formally removed from office or returned to power, the nation’s top court said on Tuesday.
Suspense was building in South Korea as the country waited for the Constitutional Court to rule on Mr. Yoon’s fate. Mr. Yoon has been suspended from office since the National Assembly impeached him on Dec. 14. In South Korea, the Constitutional Court decides whether an impeached official is removed permanently from office or reinstated.
Removing Mr. Yoon would require the votes of six or more of the court’s eight justices; otherwise, he will return to office. The court’s decision, which cannot be appealed, is a critical moment in the political upheaval that Mr. Yoon unleashed when he declared martial law on Dec. 3.
If the court removes him, Mr. Yoon will become the second president in South Korean history to leave office through impeachment. (President Park Geun-hye was the first, in 2017.) The country will quickly shift gears toward a new election; a successor must be chosen within 60 days.
If he is reinstated, South Korea’s political crisis is likely to deepen. Mr. Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law angered millions of South Koreans. Even if reinstated, he will resume his presidential duties with his ability to govern considerably weakened.
Mr. Yoon was detained on Jan. 15 on insurrection charges, also connected to his ill-fated imposition of martial law. The suspense surrounding his future intensified after a Seoul court unexpectedly released him from jail on March 8, saying that his detention was procedurally flawed.
The court’s decision — and the Constitutional Court’s upcoming ruling — do not directly affect the criminal charges, which he has been fighting in a separate trial that began at the Seoul Central District Court in February.
A decision by the Constitutional Court to reject his parliamentary impeachment would galvanize Mr. Yoon’s supporters, who have held rallies in downtown Seoul in recent weeks, calling the impeachment and the insurrection charge a “fraud” and demanding his return to office.
But it is likely to anger a majority of South Koreans, who want Mr. Yoon to be removed, according to surveys in recent weeks. The police have beefed up security measures around the courthouse, including a ban on drone flights, to guard against violence.
Mr. Yoon unexpectedly declared martial law on Dec. 3, calling the opposition-controlled National Assembly a “monster” and a “den of criminals” that had “paralyzed” his government.
It was the first time in more than four decades that any leader had tried to place South Korea, an important United States ally, under military rule. The Assembly promptly voted the measure down, forcing Mr. Yoon to rescind the order within hours.
But it has set off the nation’s worst political crisis in decades. South Koreans, who harbor painful memories of the past military rule, took to the streets by the thousands to call for Mr. Yoon’s ouster.
