South Korea martial law news LIVE: President Yoon Suk Yeo faces impeachment calls after short-lived debacle

South Korea martial law LIVE Updates: Amid a political crisis, South Korea’s opposition parties on Wednesday introduced a motion to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after his unexpected and short-lived declaration of martial law.

As reported by the Associated Press, the move, which involved heavily armed troops surrounding parliament, led to lawmakers climbing walls to get back inside and unanimously vote to lift the order. To impeach Yoon, two-thirds of parliament must support the motion, and at least six of the nine Constitutional Court justices would need to back it for him to be removed from office.

The motion, submitted by the main opposition Democratic Party and five smaller parties, could be voted on as soon as Friday.

In response to the chaos, Yoon’s senior advisers and secretaries offered to resign, and there were growing calls for his Cabinet members, including Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, to step down. The nation struggled to make sense of what seemed like a hasty and poorly thought-out decision.

“The people will block the president’s anti-constitutional step. The military must be on the side of the public in any case. Let’s resolutely oppose it,” wrote Kim Dong Yeon, the opposition party governor of Gyeonggi province, which surrounds Seoul, on X.

In his speech announcing the abrupt order Tuesday night, Yoon vowed to eliminate “anti-state” forces and continued to criticize parliament’s attempts to impeach key government officials and senior prosecutors. But martial law lasted only about six hours, as the National Assembly voted to overrule Yoon and the declaration was formally lifted around 4:30 a.m. during a Cabinet meeting, AP reported.

Marital law in South Korea

Martial law is a temporary imposition of military control during emergencies when civilian authorities are unable to maintain order. The last time it was declared in South Korea was in 1979, following the assassination of the country’s long-term military dictator, Park Chung-hee, during a coup. Since South Korea became a parliamentary democracy in 1987, martial law has not been invoked.

Dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for nearly two decades before being assassinated by his spy chief in 1979, led several thousand troops into Seoul during the early hours of May 16, 1961, in the country’s first coup. He declared martial law multiple times to suppress protests and imprison his critics.

Less than two months after Park’s death, Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan led tanks and troops into Seoul in December 1979, staging the country’s second coup. The following year, Chun carried out a brutal military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju, killing at least 200 people.