South Korean President Yoon removed from office

The Constitutional Court in South Korea has removed President Yoon Suk-yeol from office after upholding his impeachment by parliament for declaring martial law late last year, Al Jazeera reported.

The court’s Acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae opened the proceeding on Friday by declaring that there was sufficient reason to impeach President Yoon.

“The defendant mobilised military and police forces to dismantle the authority of constitutional institutions and infringed upon the fundamental rights of the people,” the acting chief justice said while reading the court’s decision.

“In doing so, he abandoned his constitutional duty to uphold the constitution and gravely betrayed the trust of the Korean people,” the chief justice said.

“Such unlawful and unconstitutional conduct constitutes an act that cannot be tolerated under the constitution,” he said.

“The negative consequences and ripple effects of these actions are substantial, and the benefit of restoring constitutional order through removal from office outweighs the national costs associated with the dismissal of a sitting president,” he added.

The Constitutional Court’s decision was unanimous, Hyung-bae said.

The ruling on Friday now means that South Korea must hold a presidential election within 60 days.

Yoon briefly declared martial law late on the evening of December 3, claiming that anti-state and North Korean forces had infiltrated the government.

But senior members of the police and military said they were instructed to detain rival politicians and prevent the country’s assembly from voting to lift the president’s surprise imposition of military rule.