south-korea-president-yoon-faces-impeachment-after-martial-law-declaration:-live-updates

South Korea President Yoon Faces Impeachment After Martial Law Declaration: Live Updates

Here are the latest developments.

The political fate of President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea was in doubt early Thursday as opposition lawmakers filed a motion to impeach him and protesters demanded he resign after an audacious gambit to impose martial law plunged the country into crisis.

As large crowds gathered at candlelight vigils and chanted against him, Mr. Yoon was increasingly isolated. Reports in the South Korean news media said that his defense minister, chief of staff and other top aides had tendered their resignations. Mr. Yoon will address the nation on Thursday morning, according to an official with knowledge of his plans, who requested anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking.

The turmoil began late Tuesday with Mr. Yoon’s surprise declaration of martial law, a remarkable response from an unpopular leader angry and frustrated with the political gridlock that has hobbled his tenure — but one that evoked frightening memories of dictatorial South Korean regimes of decades past. Protests erupted immediately, lawmakers voted to nullify the declaration, and before the sun rose in Seoul on Wednesday, the president had backed down.

At a news conference later on Wednesday, Kim Yong-min, a lawmaker in the opposition Democratic Party, announced the motion to impeach Mr. Yoon and said that it could be voted on as early as Friday. KBS, the national broadcaster, reported that six parties had jointly proposed the bill, though news reports said that Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party would oppose his impeachment.

The National Assembly can impeach the president if more than two-thirds of lawmakers vote for it. Mr. Yoon’s party controls 108 seats in the 300-member legislature, so some members of his party would have to vote for the impeachment motion for it to pass.

If the lawmakers vote to impeach Mr. Yoon, he would be suspended from office. For the president to be removed from office, the Constitutional Court must approve the impeachment in a trial.

Here’s what else to know:

  • Market jitters: South Korea’s stock market closed down 1.4 percent on Wednesday, recovering from steeper losses earlier in the day.

  • Succession rules: Under the constitution, if Mr. Yoon is impeached, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a career civil servant, would step in to perform presidential duties until impeachment proceedings conclude. If Mr. Yoon is removed or steps down, a successor would need to be elected within 60 days.

  • Unpopular leader: Mr. Yoon’s approval ratings had been plummeting for months as he was buffeted by crises. Thousands of doctors had been on strike for almost a year to resist his health care reforms. The opposition in Parliament repeatedly pushed for investigations into his wife, as well as the impeachment of his cabinet members, accusing them of corruption and abuse of power. And the lawmakers blocked many of Mr. Yoon’s bills and political appointments.

  • Night of tumult: Nearly 300 troops stormed the National Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday night, which many South Koreans saw as an attempt to arrest lawmakers as they prepared to vote against the president’s declaration of martial law. Security camera footage released on Wednesday showed the dramatic scenes as military units arrived. The troops pulled back before entering the chamber where lawmakers were, and none were believed to have been arrested.

  • Frightening memories: The sudden imposition of martial law, for many Koreans, recalled the moment more than 40 years ago when the city of Gwangju rose up to protest oppressive measures by a military junta, which responded with a brutal, bloody crackdown.

Motoko Rich

The turmoil threatens the United States’ alliance in the Pacific.

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President Biden with President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, left, and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan, right, in Peru last month. Their countries have been strengthening their ties, largely to counter China.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

When President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea visited the White House last year, he charmed the Washington establishment by singing Don McLean’s “American Pie.” When he flew to Tokyo to usher in a new era of conciliation with Japan, it was a genial visit, with the prime minister treating Mr. Yoon to “omurice,” a Japanese dish that the South Korean leader likes.

But that mood was gone on Wednesday, a day after Mr. Yoon imposed — and then rescinded — martial law in South Korea. Officials in the United States and Japan were scrambling to understand why the leader they’d both embraced had made such a shocking authoritarian move.

Now, the domestic political chaos unleashed by Mr. Yoon could imperil the countries’ three-way alliance in the Pacific, where they had been fortifying their relationships to confront an increasingly assertive China and North Korea.

The disorder in South Korea — where cabinet members on Wednesday were offering to resign and opposition lawmakers were moving to impeach Mr. Yoon — comes on top of political uncertainty in both the United States and Japan. Last month, former President Donald J. Trump, a notoriously mercurial leader who tried to undermine American alliances while in power, was elected to a second term.

And in October, Japanese voters delivered a resounding blow to the longtime governing party and the new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, denying them a majority in Parliament.

“Many in the world were counting on Japan and South Korea, along with Australia and others, to keep the flag flying and keep the head of good governance and democracy above water in the face of this incredible pressure from North Korea, China and Iran and Russia,” said Daniel Russel, a vice president at the Asia Society who was the assistant secretary of state for Asia under President Barack Obama.

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Then-President Donald J. Trump with his South Korea counterpart, Moon Jae-in, at the presidential Blue House in Seoul in 2019. Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Before Tuesday, most international policy experts had been far more concerned about unpredictability in Washington. During Mr. Trump’s first term as president, he often accused South Korea and Japan of siphoning off American military resources, even threatening to pull troops out of South Korea. And at pomp-filled summits in Singapore and Hanoi, he engaged the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in direct personal diplomacy, trying and failing to reach a deal on reducing the North’s nuclear arsenal.

Now, it is not only Mr. Trump’s return to power that makes the three-way alliance look volatile.

“Yoon’s self-inflicted wounds, combined with the now-weakened Japanese leadership, leaves the U.S. with two weak players in pushing back against China,” said Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Just a few months ago, Mr. Klingner said, “the potential weak link was changes in U.S. policy.”

The events of Tuesday night in Seoul are already yielding ripple effects. American and South Korean military officials have postponed a high-level meeting to discuss nuclear deterrence issues.

Japan’s defense minister, Gen Nakatani, said he “would like to keep a close eye on how the situation develops” before confirming a visit to South Korea. Mr. Ishiba, the prime minister, who had been discussing a January trip to Seoul, said he was monitoring the situation with “grave interest.”

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Mr. Biden with Mr. Yoon and Fumio Kishida, then Japan’s prime minister, at Camp David last year.Credit…Samuel Corum for The New York Times

One reason the three-way alliance now looks so fragile is that, to some extent, it has depended on the personalities and priorities of the countries’ leaders. Convivial photos of Mr. Yoon, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Biden at a summit last year at Camp David, looking casual without neckties, suggested a friendly bond between them.

“There was certainly an element of serendipity in the group of leaders who were committed to all of this,” said Christopher Johnstone, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former director for East Asia on the National Security Council in the Biden administration.

With Mr. Trump’s return to the White House just weeks away, the next political turnover could happen in Seoul if the motion to impeach Mr. Yoon passes. Analysts predict he would be succeeded by his main rival, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the liberal Democratic Party, which could shift South Korea’s foreign policy stance. Mr. Lee’s party has typically shied away from close relations with the United States and with Japan, with which South Korea has long-running tensions stemming from Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

A government under Democratic Party leadership would be “more likely to want to hedge between China and the U.S. and downplay the importance of trilateral security cooperation with Tokyo and Washington,” Lauren Richardson, a lecturer in international relations at Australian National University, wrote in an email.

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Lee Jae-myung, front and center, and other opposition lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday, demanding that Mr. Yoon resign and face arrest for declaring martial law.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

In many ways, the relationship between Japan and South Korea is the most important link of the three-way alliance, said Ji-Young Lee, a professor of international relations and Korean studies at American University in Washington, who credited Mr. Yoon with pushing for the rapprochement with Japan despite some public opposition.

The stronger trilateral relationship was made possible in the first place because of improved relations between Japan and South Korea, Ms. Lee said. “It was primarily the work of Yoon Suk Yeol and his desire to improve relations with Japan, and if you take that out of the picture, then you are really talking about a great deal of uncertainty for the future of Japan-Korean relations,” she added.

There were signs of fragility in that relationship just last month, when South Korean officials boycotted a ceremony organized by Japan to commemorate workers at gold mines on Sado Island. South Korea has long protested the fact that Japan has not acknowledged or apologized for the conscription of Koreans during World War II to work in the mines, which were recently designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat, said he hoped the two governments, regardless of who was in charge, would continue to build on the recent efforts to improve relations, if only to survive the struggle for supremacy between the United States and China.

South Korean officials “know the reality — their population is shrinking, their economy is bad and they cannot count on the Americans and they can’t count on the Chinese,” said Mr. Miyake. “So we need to work together — the Japanese and the Koreans.”

Despite the developments in Seoul, uncertainty in Washington could still be the bigger risk, analysts say. “The biggest elephant is the United States,” said Nobukatsu Kanehara, a professor of political science at Doshisha University in Kyoto. The trilateral partnership consists of “a whale plus two dolphins,” he added.

Mr. Kanehara said he feared that Mr. Trump, who prefers “strong men,” might regard both Mr. Yoon, if he lasts until Mr. Trump’s inauguration, and Mr. Ishiba of Japan as weak leaders.

Some analysts said Mr. Trump’s return was not the only issue for American policy in Asia. By not forcefully condemning Mr. Yoon’s declaration of martial law, the Biden administration showed “the gap between our rhetoric and the reality of our actions,” said David C. Kang, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a research group in Washington.

“We’re willing to say we love rule of law and democracy and everything else, but we will just blatantly ignore this kind of behavior because the guy is on our side,” Mr. Kang said. “But the rest of the world is not stupid. They see this, and they are very skeptical of the U.S. administration.”

Kiuko Notoya contributed research.

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Christine Chung

If President Yoon’s People Power Party opposes the impeachment motion, it may have the numbers to block it. At least two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly needs to vote for impeachment in order for the motion to succeed. President Yoon’s party controls 108 seats, so some of its members would need to abandon him, and vote in favor of impeachment, for it to pass. The vote may be held as early as Friday.

Christine Chung

The protests, which have continued late into the evening in Korea, have been festive. At the National Assembly, where thousands have gathered for a candlelight protest, there’s a band and live music. Elsewhere, South Koreans are singing impeachment-themed Christmas carols.

Christine Chung

President Yoon’s conservative People Power Party has said it will oppose his impeachment, according to Korean news reports.

The New York Times

Crises and scandals have plagued President Yoon Suk Yeol’s time in office.

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A memorial to the victims of a Halloween crowd crush in Seoul, in 2022.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea was elected in March 2022 by a margin of just 0.8 percentage points, a victory seen more as a rejection of his liberal predecessor than as an endorsement of him or his campaign.

Since then, Mr. Yoon’s approval ratings have slumped amid a series of crises and scandals, culminating in his attempt to impose martial law on Tuesday in response to government gridlock. Mr. Yoon quickly backed down Wednesday morning, but the move prompted South Korea’s political opposition to begin impeachment proceedings against him.

Here are some of the most high-profile controversies of his tenure:

Within four months of Mr. Yoon’s taking office, five of his cabinet-level appointees had resigned amid accusations of ethical lapses.

Then, in September 2022, he was caught on a hot mic and seen on camera apparently insulting U.S. lawmakers after meeting President Biden in New York. A spokeswoman for Mr. Yoon said he had been talking about South Korean lawmakers, not Americans. But many of Mr. Yoon’s critics rejected that assertion.

On Oct. 29, 2022, a crowd crush at a Halloween celebration in one of Seoul’s most popular nightlife districts killed 158 people. Official documents and parliamentary testimony showed that the South Korean authorities had ignored or missed several opportunities to prevent the disaster.

The Seoul metropolitan police chief at the time, Kim Kwang-ho, told Parliament that the force had been “significantly focused” on the government’s antidrug efforts when asked whether that campaign had distracted officials from ensuring crowd safety. Mr. Yoon, facing calls to resign, blamed the police and other agencies for failing to predict the crush.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the government insisted it was not responsible for ensuring public safety on the streets. Mr. Yoon ignored demands from victims’ families to fire top safety officials. He also dismissed requests for a meeting with the relatives of the dead and refused to issue an apology.

Hidden camera footage released by local news media in late 2023 showed Mr. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, accepting a $2,200 Dior pouch as a gift, apparently violating a ban on government officials and their spouses accepting gifts worth more than $750.

In a survey in December 2023, a majority of South Koreans said they thought it was inappropriate for Ms. Kim to have accepted the gift. Ms. Kim appeared to deny claims of wrongdoing, according to local news media. Some officials from Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party called the incident a “trap” designed to influence parliamentary elections in April. Prosecutors decided not to charge Ms. Kim over the gift in October, local media reported.

Earlier this year, after a 20-year-old member of the South Korean Marine Corps was killed during a rescue mission, a military officer accused the Defense Ministry of whitewashing the inquiry under pressure from Mr. Yoon.

The marine, Lance Corporal Chae Su-geun, died while looking for missing residents in waist-high floodwaters in 2023, and the inquiry found that his team was ill-equipped for the task.

The accusation was the first major political crisis for Mr. Yoon since his party’s major defeat in parliamentary elections in April and raised the possibility that the president could face impeachment proceedings. In July, Mr. Yoon vetoed a bill that would have mandated a special counsel investigation into the allegations that his office and senior military officials interfered in the inquiry, calling it politically motivated.

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Lara Jakes

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has urged South Korea to solve its political disagreements peacefully and lawfully, and said that the reversal of President Yoon’s martial law order showed “the institutions functioning as they should.” Mr. Blinken told reporters at the NATO headquarters in Brussels that South Korea has had “an extraordinary story” over recent decades as it embraced democratic values.

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John Yoon

South Koreans try to process six hours of martial law.

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Protesters asking South Korea’s president to step down took to the streets of Seoul on Wednesday.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Though it lasted just six hours, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law sent lingering shock waves through South Korea on Wednesday, stirring reflection and conversation among people, whether they were protesting or not.

At stoplights, on subways and in homes across Seoul, people were glued to news updates as they tried to process the political moment. Student groups organized protests and issued statements rebuking the president, who now faces impeachment proceedings.

Jeon Jun-soo, a 14-year-old student, stood in front of a newsstand in Seoul reading the headlines on Wednesday morning. He had cut classes at his middle school in Gimpo, near Seoul, to watch the protests in the capital on Wednesday.

“I was scared when I saw the news yesterday, and it kept me awake,” he said, adding that he was haunted by accounts of political upheaval he had read: “At first, I was worried that there would be a blood bath like in the history books.”

Some South Koreans remembered the country’s era of military rule. Kim Gil-hwan, 56, said his anger at President Yoon was rooted in his experience participating in the democratization movement in the 1980s as a high school student.

“The suppression of the press, the dictatorial behavior, the refusal to listen to the voice of the people,” said Mr. Kim, listing his grievances against Mr. Yoon. Instead of working at his construction business, Mr. Kim had set off for Gwanghwamun Square, the same spot where he had joined hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye eight years ago.

The short-lived declaration of martial law also triggered deep-seated anxieties in Ro Kyung-hee, 62, who had voted for Mr. Yoon but was now calling for his impeachment, describing his leadership as worse than that of past dictators — and even Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea.

She said she would have played ping pong, gone to the gym and watched TV at home if it weren’t for what happened Tuesday night. But after a sleepless night, she came to Seoul to demonstrate.

“He still has three years left, and that’s horrifying,” she said.

Isabella Kwai

The protests last night were concentrated on the area around the National Assembly in Seoul, where troops clashed with legislative aides. Tonight, people finishing work have headed to protests around the city and the country. Once again there is a crowd of thousands outside the National Assembly, loudly demanding the impeachment of President Yoon, while others have gathered in the Gwanghwamun area. Several unions have threatened to strike if the president does not step down, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

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Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

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Choe Sang-Hun

A desperate gambit leaves President Yoon even more isolated.

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Protesters blocking a military vehicle outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday, after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

For Yoon Suk Yeol, the unpopular president of South Korea, things appeared to worsen with each passing day. Thousands of doctors had been on strike for almost a year to resist his health care reforms. The opposition in Parliament repeatedly pushed for investigations into his wife, as well as the impeachment of his cabinet members, accusing them of corruption and abuse of power. And the lawmakers blocked many of Mr. Yoon’s bills and political appointments.

On Tuesday night, Mr. Yoon took a desperate measure, his boldest political gamble, which he said was driven by frustration and crisis. In a surprise, nationally televised address, he declared martial law, the first such decree in the country in decades. The move banned all political activities, civil gatherings and “fake news” in what he called an attempt to save his country from “pro-North Korean” and “anti-state forces.”

But it ended almost as abruptly as it had started.

Thousands of citizens took to the streets, chanting “Impeach Yoon Suk Yeol!” Opposition lawmakers climbed the walls into the National Assembly as citizens pushed​ back police. Parliamentary aides used furniture and fire extinguishers to prevent armed paratroopers from entering the Assembly’s main hall. Inside, lawmakers who included members of Mr. Yoon’s own People Power Party voted unanimously to strike down his martial law. Six hours after declaring it, Mr. Yoon appeared on television again, this time to retract his decision.

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Soldiers trying to enter the main hall of the National Assembly on Tuesday after the declaration of martial law.Credit…Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

It was the shortest-lived and most bizarre martial law in ​the history of South Korea, which had had its share of military coups and periods of martial law before it became a vibrant democracy after the military dictatorship that ended in the late 1980s.

In the end, driven by his own impulsiveness and surrounded by a small group of insiders, who seldom said no to a leader known for angry outbursts, Mr. Yoon shot his own foot,​ according to a former aide and political analysts.​ Now his political future ​is on the chopping block​, thrusting one of the United States’ most important allies in Asia into political upheaval and leaving many South Koreans in a state of shock.

On Wednesday, the opposition parties, which control the legislature, submitted an impeachment bill after Mr. Yoon did not respond to their demand that he resign because his martial law declaration had been unconstitutional. An editorial in the leading conservative daily Chosun Ilbo, which has often been friendly toward Mr. Yoon, now accused him of “insulting” South Korean democracy. South Koreans have not seen their leader declare martial law since the military dictator Chun Doo-hwan used it to seize power in 1979​ and later massacre pro-democracy students.

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Protesters shouting for the withdrawal of martial law near the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

“The best option Yoon has now is to resign,” said Sung Deuk Hahm, a professor of political science at Kyonggi University, west of Seoul. “As tragic as it may seem, what happened overnight showed the resilience and durability of South Korean democracy.”

Mr. Yoon did not immediately respond to the opposition’s demand. On Wednesday, all senior aides to Mr. Yoon tendered their resignations to Mr. Yoon, leaving him more isolated than ever. Analysts were skeptical about ​Mr. Yoon’s political future.

“I don’t think he can finish his five-year term,” said Kang Won-taek, a political scientist at Seoul National University.

On Wednesday, Mr. Yoon’s office said the president’s decision to declare martial law was an inevitable measure in accordance with the Constitution to “restore and normalize the state of affairs” from political paralysis.

Mr. Yoon has grown increasingly despondent in recent months, particularly over escalating scandals surrounding him and his wife and the relentless political pressure from the opposition, said Mr. Hahm, who has known Mr. Yoon since before his election.​

“Things have become too much for him,” ​Mr. Hahm said. “He became mentally unstable under political pressure.”

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Members of South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party setting up barricades at an entrance to the National Assembly building in Seoul on Wednesday.Credit…Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Yoon was surrounded by a handful of aides, including former military generals, who were not used to second-guessing their boss’s decision, said a former presidential aide to Mr. Yoon who agreed to discuss the president’s leadership style on the condition they not be identified. That small circle raised questions about how thoroughly Mr. Yoon prepared for martial law.

The former presidential aide said that as soon as he heard the declaration of martial law, he called contacts in Mr. Yoon’s office and other branches of the government. But none of them had advance knowledge of what was coming, he said.

Even top leaders of Mr. Yoon’s party said they learned of the declaration through the news media. Kim Byung-joo, an opposition lawmaker and former general, told MBC Radio on Wednesday that when he called army generals near the border with North Korea, none of them knew what was happening. Paratroopers mobilized to occupy the National Assembly showed none of the decisiveness and brutality their predecessors used in the 1980 crackdown on pro-democracy activists, when as many as hundreds were killed in the southern city of Gwangju during Mr. Chun’s period of martial law. On Wednesday, the soldiers peacefully retreated after the Assembly voted to repeal Mr. Yoon’s action.

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Student demonstrators demanding the end of martial law and the resignation of then-Premier Shin Hyun-Hwack and the former Korean Central Intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, in May 1980.Credit…Associated Press

Some opposition lawmakers and social media commentators speculated that Mr. Yoon might be preparing for martial law when he appointed Kim Yong-hyun, his chief bodyguard and former army general, as his defense minister in September. ​But members of his government called the idea a conspiracy theory, and not many people took it seriously.

Before he was catapulted into the presidential race in 2022, Mr. Yoon was a political neophyte. He was a star prosecutor who wielded the law to help imprison two former presidents, and was used to a strictly top-down culture.

He won the election by a razor-thin margin, thanks largely to the public’s discontent with his predecessor, Moon Jae-in. But, from the start, he laid out big ambitions, seemingly staking his claim for a legacy as a change maker in a gridlocked political system.

Mr. Yoon put South Korea back on a path toward embracing more nuclear power, mended ties with Japan and expanded military cooperation with the United States and Japan as he took a harder line against North Korea.

But little of his domestic agenda has worked out. His opponents won even greater control in the National Assembly in parliamentary elections this year. His government was accused of using prosecutors and criminal investigations to intimidate opposition leaders and crack down on news media he accused of spreading “fake news​.” ​His approval rating plummeted to around 20 percent, as he repeatedly vetoed the opposition’s demands for independent investigations into allegations against his wife, Kim Keon Hee. The opposition also imposed large changes on his budget proposals for next year.

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Opposition leaders protesting to demand Mr. Yoon’s arrest and resignation as they gather on the steps of the National Assembly building in Seoul on Wednesday.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Mr. Yoon was often called a “tribal leader” by political analysts for his penchant for appointing loyal friends among former prosecutors and fellow high school alumni to key military and government posts.​

One of ​them was Han Dong-hoon, Mr. Yoon’s loyal lieutenant when he was prosecutor general. As president, Mr. Yoon appointed Mr. Han as justice minister and later helped make him the head of his governing party. But they fell out over differences in how to handle allegations against the first lady.

They ​grew to dislike each other so much ​that Mr. Yoon considered Mr. Han a betrayer, ​according to former aides and local media.

“He must have felt that he was surrounded by enemies and that he must make a bold decision,” said Ahn Byong-jin, a political scientist at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. “But it’s mind-boggling that he didn’t know how it would be received by the National Assembly and the people.”

Mr. Hahm, the professor, said Mr. Yoon was an impulsive man surrounded by “sycophantic aides​.” When he met the president after his party’s crushing defeat in parliamentary elections in April, he was surprised that Mr. Yoon had become more “obstinate and talkative,” Mr. Hahm said.

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The former interim leader of the governing People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, delivering his acceptance speech after being elected as the party’s new leader during a national convention in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, in July.Credit…Pool photo by Yonhap

Mr. Yoon appeared to live with conflicting emotions, Mr. Hahm said. On one hand, he brimmed with optimism that things would work out almost miraculously, as they had in his previous career. On the other, he feared that he would end up a failed president with no positive legacy to speak of — a result he seemingly ensured when he moved to use the military against his opponents Tuesday night.

“I think those two emotions have combined to lead him to his decision,” he said.

Isabella Kwai

Thousands of people joined an evening vigil in Seoul, chanting slogans and marching to the presidential office in Yongsan. About 10,000 people were in the crowd, organizers told the Yonhap News Agency, though the police said the number was closer to 2,000.

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Chang W. Lee

Vigils are taking place in parts of South Korea after President Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law. In the Gwanghwamun area of Seoul, protesters holding flags and candles called for Yoon to step down.

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Victoria Kim

Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun has offered to resign, taking responsibility for the declaration of martial law, according to Yonhap, a South Korean news agency. The ministry made the announcement in text messages to reporters, the agency reported. Local news media reported earlier that Kim was the one to propose the idea of martial law to President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Daisuke WakabayashiSu-Hyun Lee

Martial law didn’t silence South Korea’s media. It empowered them.

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Newspapers at a subway gate in downtown Seoul on Wednesday, after President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea lifted a declaration of martial law.Credit…Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

When President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea shocked the nation by declaring martial law, he placed news organizations under the rule of military command and outlawed “fake news.” It was a striking escalation of his long-running feud with media critical of his administration.

But when faced with censorship by the military, the Korean press did not acquiesce. News organizations spanning the political spectrum — even right-leaning publications more aligned with Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party — stood united in criticism of his actions and any efforts to limit a free press.

Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor, described his decision to declare martial law late on Tuesday as an act “of national resolve against the anti-state forces that are trying to paralyze the essential functions of the state and disrupt the constitutional order of our liberal democracy.” As part of the declaration, the South Korean military issued a decree prohibiting “fake news, public opinion manipulation, and false propaganda,” placing all media and publications under its control.

While Mr. Yoon reversed the declaration about six hours later, it offered a glimpse of the risks posed by years of challenges to press freedoms in South Korea by the country’s political leaders.

An editorial in Chosun Ilbo, one of South Korea’s biggest daily newspapers with a conservative leaning, called the president’s actions an international “embarrassment.” Mr. Yoon needed to answer to the public on how he intended to “take responsibility” for this situation, it added.

“How can the current situation justify restricting the basic rights of citizens?,” the paper wrote.

In the liberal Hankyoreh, an editorial declared: “The Republic of Korea’s biggest security risk is ‘Yoon Suk Yeol.’”

Chun Young-sun, managing editor of Korea JoongAng Daily, the English-language edition of daily newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, said there were no guidelines for how to react when the government declares martial law because it had not happened for decades. She said the outlet’s first reaction was to report the facts and send reporters out to the scene.

“At no point did we consider stopping or limiting coverage,” she said in a LinkedIn post. “The idea that we would do anything but continue reporting never really crossed our minds.”

(Korea JoongAng Daily copublishes its print edition with The International New York Times.)

A consortium of unions representing journalists and media industry workers condemned Mr. Yoon in a statement, calling his actions “anti-democratic,” “unconstitutional” and a denial of the “historical achievements of democracy and press freedom that the entire nation has fought for with blood over half a century.”

Press freedom was one of the hard-earned rights that South Koreans gained in the country’s difficult march toward democracy from the 1980s, after decades of military rule and sweeping media controls. Today, South Korea has dozens of broadcasters and hundreds of newspapers — although the country, like many others, is grappling with how to handle the damage of disinformation spread by social media.

Park Sung Hee, a professor of media at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said the media’s aggressive and critical response to the declaration of martial law showed that “Korea’s press freedom is alive and well.” She noted that South Koreans are very digitally connected and that “any attempt to suppress or dominate the flow of information cannot easily succeed.”

When Mr. Yoon took office in 2022, after eking out a victory in the closest race of any free presidential election in the country’s history, he seemed open to the press — going as far as fielding questions from reporters in the morning as he arrived for work.

At the time, it came as a sharp contrast to the previous president, Moon Jae-in, and his liberal Democratic Party. In 2021, Mr. Moon’s government tried unsuccessfully to enact a proposal to stamp out what it deemed “fake news” with hefty financial penalties. Amid outcry from journalists and news organizations, the legislation failed to pass.

But Mr. Yoon’s media honeymoon did not last. He, too, turned openly hostile with the press: The president has turned to a combination of lawsuits, regulation and criminal investigations in an effort to suppress what he considered disinformation.

Under Mr. Yoon, police and prosecutors have raided newsrooms and the homes of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.” His administration and political allies have filed a series of defamation cases that carry possible criminal charges.

In a 2023 human rights report on South Korea, the U.S. State Department said the government was “accused of using libel and slander laws, which were broadly defined and criminalized defamation, to restrict public discussion and harass, intimidate or censor private and media expression.”

Lee Sangwon, an assistant professor at Korea University School of Media & Communication, said, in general, that the Korean press had been reluctant to be overly critical of Mr. Yoon in the past, but the declaration of martial law was such an extreme act that the media was united in condemning the president.

“It was a tipping point,” he said.

Qasim Nauman

Qasim Nauman

Reporting from Seoul

Footage from security cameras at South Korea’s National Assembly complex showed the dramatic scenes as military units arrived. One view shows three helicopters landing in a soccer field and soldiers streaming out. In another clip, soldiers are seen trying to smash a window pane with rifles before climbing in.

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CreditCredit…South Korea’s National Assembly Secretariat via Reuters

Qasim Nauman

Qasim Nauman

Reporting from Seoul

Dozens of soldiers, some wearing night-vision goggles and many carrying assault rifles, were seen inside and outside the building in the footage released by the assembly secretariat.

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Jason Karaian

The South Korean won bounced from its lows, after officials from the finance ministry, central bank and regulatory agencies pledged “unlimited” support. But the won remains weaker since the initial declaration of martial law, dragging down what was already one of Asia’s weakest currencies. It is down more than 8 percent versus the dollar this year.

Jason Karaian

South Korea’s stock market closed down 1.4 percent, recovering from steeper losses earlier. Shares of some of South Korea’s biggest companies fell, with Samsung Electronics losing 1 percent and Hyundai Motor shedding more than 2 percent. Big banks were among the worst hit, a sign of general economic unease as investors considered the deepening political turmoil.

Jason Karaian

South Korea’s stock market was already among the worst-performing in the world: It has fallen more than 7 percent this year, a sharp contrast to many major indexes, in Asia and elsewhere, that have posted double-digit gains.

John Yoon

The National Assembly can impeach a president and suspend him if 200 of its 300 members vote in favor. To remove the president from office, South Korea’s Constitutional Court must approve the impeachment in a trial.

John Yoon

President Yoon’s People Power Party controls 108 seats, so some of its members would have to vote for the impeachment motion for it to pass. Of the 190 lawmakers who voted to end martial law early Wednesday, 18 were from Mr. Yoon’s party.

Qasim Nauman

South Korea’s prime minister will step in if the president is forced out.

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South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul in November.Credit…Pool photo by Lee Jin-Man

Members of South Korea’s opposition, which controls the National Assembly, have submitted a motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after his ill-fated decision to impose martial law.

If Mr. Yoon quits or is removed from office then, under the constitution, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will step in to perform presidential duties.

Mr. Yoon, a conservative, came into office after winning the 2022 presidential election by a threadbare margin, and appointed Mr. Han as the prime minister that year. It marked Mr. Han’s second time in that job; he had served under President Roh Moo-hyun, a liberal, from April 2007 to February 2008.

Mr. Han began his career as a civil servant in the early 1970s, working on trade and industrial policy for decades. He received a doctorate in economics from Harvard in 1984. From 2009 to 2012, Mr. Han was South Korea’s ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Yoon has been in a bitter standoff with the opposition, led by the progressive Democratic Party, for almost his entire tenure as president. The Democratic Party inflicted a crushing defeat on his People Power Party in the parliamentary elections held in April, leaving him on the verge of being a lame duck.

The Democratic Party has said it would begin impeachment proceedings if Mr. Yoon does not step down immediately. The president is impeached if two-thirds of the 300-member legislature vote in favor of doing so.

Mr. Han would act as the president until impeachment proceedings conclude. How long he would need to serve in that interim capacity is unclear.

Under South Korean law, once the National Assembly has impeached the president, the matter could go to the Constitutional Court. If the court upholds the impeachment, the president would be removed from office.

If Mr. Yoon is removed or steps down, a successor would need to be elected within 60 days.

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Victoria Kim

The impeachment bill was jointly proposed by six parties but not the president’s own ruling party, according to KBS, the national broadcaster.

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Credit…Yonhap/EPA, via Shutterstock

John Yoon

Opposition lawmakers in South Korea submitted a motion on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, setting off a proceeding to remove him from office.

John Yoon

Kim Yongmin, a lawmaker of the opposition Democratic Party, announced the motion in a news conference on Wednesday, adding that it would be placed on the agenda of the National Assembly’s plenary session at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday and voted on as early as Friday.

Victoria Kim

For some Koreans, martial law brought back frightening memories.

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Police officers outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Tuesday night.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The last time South Korea was under martial law, Chung Chin-ook was in his first year of high school, more than 40 years ago. His home city of Gwangju rose up to protest oppressive measures by the military junta, only to face a brutal, bloody crackdown.

Late Tuesday night, those memories raced through the now 60-year-old lawmaker’s head as he scaled the fence surrounding the National Assembly. He and other members rushed to the chamber to nullify President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law, evading the police officials who stood guard at the gates.

“I immediately thought of 1980, and the fear and desperation we felt,” said Mr. Chung, one of the 190 members of the assembly who voted unanimously against martial law early Wednesday. “It didn’t seem real that we were undergoing this again after 40 years.”

From inside the chamber, lawmakers nervously watched live footage as special forces troops landed in helicopters on the lawn and broke windows to enter the building, Mr. Chung said by telephone. Aides blockaded the entrance to buy time as Mr. Chung and his colleagues went through the procedures for the vote.

He said the color of the troops’ fatigues brought back memories of the soldiers who kicked and slapped him and his brothers at the start of the Gwangju crackdown, telling them to go home. Even though it seemed possible that this new standoff, like the one in 1980, could lead to bloodshed, he said it felt important to take a stand.

“There was an indescribable fear and rage, and the feeling that we cannot lose this time,” he said. “Back then, I was too young to fight.”

Lee Jae-eui was a 24-year-old college student when the Gwangju killings occurred. He served 10 months in prison after being arrested for illegal assembly and distributing information in violation of the martial law that was then in effect.

At his home in Gwangju, Mr. Lee was awakened late Tuesday night by repeated messages on his phone. He rose in time to watch a live broadcast of the military entering the National Assembly. He said he watched with a mix of disbelief and dismay.

“It was total déjà-vu,” said Mr. Lee, now 68. “After democratization, I didn’t think this would happen again in our lifetime.”

He said the people who lived through democratization were intimately familiar with the terror that martial law and military rule can bring. South Korea has gone through too much to allow that history to repeat itself, he said.

“The people know this is not lawful,” he said.

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Chang W. Lee

Members of South Korea’s opposition parties protested at the steps of the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday, demanding that President Yoon Suk Yeol step down and be arrested.

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CreditCredit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

John Ismay

The United States and South Korea postponed a high-level meeting Wednesday between military officials to discuss nuclear deterrence issues, according to a U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Minho Kim

Nearly 300 troops stormed the National Assembly, its secretary general says.

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Soldiers stormed South Korea’s National Assembly as legislative aides put up barricades to give lawmakers time to vote on nullifying President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration.CreditCredit…Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

The secretary general of South Korea’s National Assembly, Kim Min-ki, condemned the military on Wednesday morning for breaking into the legislature during President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law, saying that nearly 300 troops had stormed the compound.

“I strongly condemn the illegal, unconstitutional actions of the military and the destruction it caused at the National Assembly premises due to President Yoon’s decree of martial law,” Mr. Kim said at a news briefing. He vowed to seek legal remedies for the damage caused, and he said the police, who prevented some lawmakers from entering the building overnight, would be barred from the premises.

Mr. Kim offered the most detailed official account yet of the military’s incursion. About 230 troops were flown by helicopter onto the assembly grounds, and roughly 50 others jumped fences to gain entry, he said. Mr. Kim played closed-circuit footage of soldiers entering the compound, saying that all such video would soon be made public.

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CreditCredit…South Korea’s National Assembly Secretariat via Reuters

As the secretary general, Mr. Kim is nonpartisan, but he was a member of the opposition Democratic Party until last spring.

Many South Koreans saw the military’s storming of the assembly as an attempt to arrest lawmakers, who are empowered by the Constitution to nullify a president’s declaration of martial law.

Legislative aides from both major parties barricaded entrances to the building with chairs and desks, apparently to give lawmakers time to pass such a resolution. Troops smashed windows, and some aides and protesters sprayed them with fire extinguishers, footage broadcast by the domestic news media showed.

The full extent of the damage was not immediately clear as of early Wednesday afternoon.

Hours after Mr. Yoon’s decree late Tuesday night, the 300-member assembly passed the resolution to rescind martial law by a vote of 190-0. The military soon retreated from the compound, and Mr. Yoon convened his cabinet to formally lift the declaration of martial law.

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Victoria Kim

South Korea’s Democratic party said in a statement Wednesday that if President Yoon does not resign they would immediately begin impeachment proceedings. The opposition lawmakers, who control the National Assembly, said Yoon’s use of martial law was unconstitutional, and was “a grave act of insurrection, and clear grounds for impeachment.”

Alexandra E. Petri

As South Korea’s allies monitored the political turmoil there on Wednesday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden said he had postponed a planned summit with President Yoon later this week.

Martin Fackler

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan said he had not yet decided whether to postpone a planned visit to South Korea in January to meet with President Yoon. “We have been watching the situation with particular and grave interest,” he said. Mr. Ishiba has supported closer security ties with South Korea to offset the challenges of China and North Korea.

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Credit…JIJI Press/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

River Akira DavisJason Karaian

Korean markets wobbled as investors assessed the country’s political turmoil.

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Analysts and investors on Wednesday were trying to gauge how long South Korea’s outbreak of political turmoil would persist.Credit…Yonhap/EPA, via Shutterstock

South Korean stocks and the country’s currency were rattled on Wednesday, prompting officials to pledge “unlimited” support to markets after a tense night during which President Yoon Suk Yeol declared and then lifted martial law.

The benchmark Kospi index fell 1.4 percent, recovering somewhat from a deeper loss earlier in the day. Big banks were hit particularly hard, and an index tracking the financial sector dropped about 4 percent, a reflection of general economic unease. Shares of some of South Korea’s biggest companies were also down, with Samsung Electronics losing 1 percent and Hyundai Motor shedding more than 2 percent.

South Korea’s stock market was already among the worst-performing in the world. It has fallen more than 7 percent this year, a sharp contrast to many major indexes, in Asia and elsewhere, that have posted double-digit gains.

After a steep drop overnight, the won rose as policymakers pledged to support the currency. On Wednesday it was trading down by less than 1 percent against the dollar since the initial declaration of martial law late Tuesday night.

How many South Korean won a U.S. dollar buys

The South Korean won has also been one of the weakest currencies in Asia in recent months, down more than 8 percent against the dollar this year.

South Korea’s finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, convened a meeting in Seoul with officials from the central bank and key financial regulators within an hour of martial law being declared. They pledged to meet daily and provide “unlimited liquidity support” until the stock, bond and currency markets stabilized.

Mr. Choi said on Wednesday that the government would focus on shielding the economy, and that officials would “closely communicate” with the authorities of other countries with major economies. “The government will do its best to address economic concerns and to minimize disruptions in entrepreneurial and daily activities,” he said.

The Bank of Korea called an emergency meeting on Wednesday “given the underlying anxiety” in markets, it said in a statement. The central bank said it would “actively” take various measures to calm markets and currency fluctuations.

Bank officials unexpectedly cut interest rates last week, citing “heightened uncertainties surrounding growth and inflation, driven by the new U.S. administration’s policies.”

As opposition lawmakers demanded that Mr. Yoon step down, analysts and investors were trying to gauge how long South Korea’s outbreak of political turmoil would persist.

While heightened political uncertainty is expected to persist, “we expect limited implications for the economy and financial markets as the Bank of Korea and the Ministry of Finance have responded swiftly by reassuring investors,” said analysts at BMI, a unit of the research firm Fitch Solutions. The central bank’s measures also mean “risks around the won should remain contained,” they wrote in a note.

And although most stocks in Seoul were down, some companies gained on the prospect of a change in government. Kakao, the sprawling social media and payments app, jumped more than 7 percent on speculation over a potential shift in antitrust policy. Mr. Yoon had called the company’s dominant ride-hailing service a “tyranny.”

“South Korea’s democratic institutions and culture have withstood the stress test,” Krishna Guha, vice chairman of Evercore ISI, a brokerage, wrote in a research note. “But it is extraordinary and troubling that it happened at all,” he added.

Minho Kim contributed reporting.

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Minho Kim

The secretary general of the National Assembly, Kim Min-ki, said that he would hold the military accountable for its role in imposing martial law briefly overnight, including their forced entry to the National Assembly.

Minho Kim

He also said the police would be banned from the assembly building. He gave the first detailed account, as CCTV of the evening played, of what military resources were used overnight: About 230 personnel flew in helicopters to the assembly and then about 50 of them climbed over the fences. He promised to release the full video.

Victoria Kim

Several senior aides to President Yoon, including his chief of staff, collectively tendered their resignation following the martial law declaration, according to KBS, South Korea’s national broadcaster. The top aides included his national security adviser and chief of staff for policy, according to Yonhap news agency.

Minho Kim

South Korea’s financial leaders have moved swiftly to reassure investors. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, in a news conference on Wednesday morning, said the government would “closely communicate” with other major economies and will act to limit the impact on the nation’s economy

Minho Kim

The minister, who is also the economy minister, walked out of the news conference without taking any questions. One reporter shouted, “will the entire cabinet resign?” There was no response.

Ephrat Livni

South Korean history is scarred by martial law.

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Soldiers with bound pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980.Credit…Sadayuki Mikami/Associated Press

For many younger South Koreans, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law late Tuesday night was their first exposure to a kind of turbulence that older generations remember all too well.

Since South Korea was founded in 1948, a number of presidents have declared states of military emergency. The most recent — and the most notorious, perhaps — came after the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, a former general who had occasionally used martial law himself to crack down on political protests and opposition since seizing power in 1961.

Soon after Mr. Park was killed, a general, Chun Doo-hwan, staged his own coup. In May 1980, he declared martial law, banning all political activities, closing schools and arresting dissidents.

Protests erupted in the southwestern city of Gwangju, and Mr. Chun sent in armored vehicles and paratroopers, who crushed the uprising. Officials said at least 191 people were killed, including 26 soldiers and police officers, but families of slain demonstrators said the death toll was much higher.

Mr. Chun, who remained in power until 1988, characterized the Gwangju protests as a revolt driven by North Korean operatives. But the uprising became a pivotal moment in South Korea’s transition to democracy, and many South Koreans support revising the Constitution to honor its importance to the country.

In 1996, Mr. Chun and another former general, Roh Tae-woo — a childhood friend of Mr. Chun who backed his rule and was directly elected president in 1988 — were prosecuted for the 1979 coup and the deadly crackdown that followed.

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Roh Tae-woo, left, and Chun Doo-hwan on trial in 1996.Credit…Yonhap/EPA, via Shutterstock

President Kim Young-sam, who served from 1993 to 1998, said at the time of the prosecutions that they marked a new era of constitutionalism for Korea. But Mr. Kim pardoned both men the next year, a move aimed at uniting the country.

Shin Woo-jae, a spokesman for President Kim, said the pardons were granted “to promote national reconciliation and rally the nation’s energies to overcome the economic difficulties at this juncture when the nation conducted the cleanest and fairest presidential election in its history.”