SEOUL – Crowds of South Koreans filled downtown Seoul in one of the largest protests since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached for his martial law declaration, as judges enter the final stretch of their deliberations on whether to confirm his ouster or reinstate him.
Protesters took to the streets on March 1 with umbrellas, national flags and banners, with some expressing support and others criticising the suspended president.
Live television footage showed Yoon supporters crowding one section of the Gwanghwamun area that houses the government headquarters, while demonstrators demanding his removal occupied a nearby thoroughfare.
Police earlier expected the crowds to total about 350,000 in the capital.
South Korea has been divided for months over Mr Yoon’s unexpected martial law imposition that whipsawed financial markets, battered economic confidence and disrupted high-level diplomacy.
Rallies have occurred in Seoul almost every weekend either for or against him since the Constitutional Court began to examine the parliamentary motion that impeached him in December.
Mr Yoon, 64, denied wrongdoing over the course of 11 hearings that ended this week, defending his move as a desperate bid to deal with North Korea sympathisers trying to paralyse his administration.
He contended his deployment of troops to the National Assembly on Dec 3, 2024, was to ensure peace and order rather than to block lawmakers from voting to annul the martial law.
“Yoon should come back to protect this country against North Korea as soon as possible,” 66-year-old Choi Jungyoon said at a rally near the National Assembly. “Martial law was necessary.”
The opposition-controlled parliament accused Mr Yoon of abusing power and the anti-corruption agency arrested him in January, making him the first sitting South Korean president to be taken into custody.
While most rallies have been peaceful, violence erupted in January when a mob broke into a court that extended Mr Yoon’s arrest. Some climbed over the wall and others broke barricades to make their way into the Seoul Western District Court.
The political tension that has weighed on consumer and business sentiment is likely to last until the Constitutional Court reaches its conclusion, which analysts expect in mid-March.
“Yoon should be impeached,” Ms Christina Lee, 30, said at a rally near the Constitutional Court. “Martial law is nonsense. I’m worried this country might lose its democracy.”
Should the Constitutional Court decide to remove Mr Yoon from office, a snap election will be held within 60 days.
For now, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is holding the government together as acting president after Mr Yoon was impeached and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was suspended from office for refusing to comply with an opposition demand to quickly appoint constitutional judges.
The leadership vacuum has undermined the export-reliant country’s ability to effectively negotiate with US President Donald Trump, who threatens to impose tariffs on trading partners.
Mr Yoon came to power in 2022 on a platform that included closer relations with the US and a tougher stance on North Korea.
A former prosecutor who led high-profile corruption investigations, he narrowly defeated Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, which traditionally promotes greater wealth equality and more efforts for dialogue with Pyongyang.
The political turmoil in Seoul coincided with North Korea’s growing military cooperation with Russia, as Mr Kim Jong Un sends troops to aid in the war on Ukraine. In a speech on March 1, acting president Choi stressed the importance of maintaining combat readiness.
“The government will maintain a solid military readiness posture based on the South Korea-US alliance to firmly deter North Korea’s provocations,” he said.
Recent polls show Lee as the front-runner in a potential presidential election, though he faces his own legal troubles.
An appeals court is set to rule later this month on whether he violated election laws after a lower court in November found him guilty of making false claims in 2021 while campaigning for the presidency. He will be banned from seeking office if his conviction is confirmed.
Lee would not be South Korea’s first opposition leader to replace an ousted president. In 2017, the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of president Park Geun-hye, who was embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal, allowing opposition leader Moon Jae-in to win a snap election that followed.
But Lee is seen by critics as more divisive than Mr Moon and may have a tougher time winning swing voters.
While A Gallup Korea poll on Feb 28 showed 59 per cent of those surveyed supported Mr Yoon’s ouster and only 35 per cent were against it, his ruling party received almost as much support as Lee’s at 36 per cent to 38 per cent.
The survey results suggest South Koreans are not ready to fully endorse the opposition in the next presidential race and followed a series of similar outcomes from other polls. Lee has responded by shifting his stance with some policies to attract more support.
“Lee Jae-myung appears to have pivoted towards more pragmatic economic policies targeting moderate voters,” Citi Research economists Jin-Wook Kim and Jiuk Choi said in a note this week.
“Looking back at Korea’s previous impeachment in 2017 as well as recent president candidate approval ratings survey, the major opposition party would appear to have a stronger chance of winning if a president election is announced.” BLOOMBERG
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