Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol in the context of Constitutional Court of Korea

2025 (MMXXV) is the current year, and is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2025th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 25th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2020s decade.

So far, the year has seen an escalation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began peace negotiations involving Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The Gaza war, including a famine and humanitarian crisis, as well as the Sudanese civil war, also continued throughout the year. Internal crises in Armenia, Bangladesh, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Haiti, Peru, Somalia, and South Korea continued into this year, with the latter leading to President Yoon Suk Yeol's arrest and removal from office. The year has also seen a wave of protests predominantly led by Generation Z, with some, like those in Nepal and Madagascar, resulting in the overthrow of governments. Several brief conflicts out of longstanding tensions emerged mid-year—India–Pakistan in May, Iran–Israel in June, and Cambodia–Thailand in July, in which a leaked phone call involving Thai prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Cambodian senate president Hun Sen resulted in the removal of the former.

The 2024 South Korean martial law crisis was a political crisis in South Korea triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law. On 3 December 2024, at 22:27 Korea Standard Time (KST), Yoon, then the president of South Korea, announced the imposition of martial law during a televised address. In his speech, he accused the Democratic Party (DPK), which held a majority in the National Assembly, of engaging in "anti-state activities" and collaborating with "North Korean communists" to undermine the country, describing their dominance as a "legislative dictatorship". The declaration suspended political activities, including sessions of the National Assembly and local legislatures, and imposed restrictions on the press. Reports also indicated that Yoon ordered the arrest of several political opponents, including leaders of both the DPK and his own People Power Party (PPP). The move was broadly characterised by both domestic and international media, as well as by South Korean political figures, as an attempted self-coup by Yoon to rule by decree and to reimpose full authoritarianism on the country for the first time since the June Democratic Struggle.

The declaration was opposed by both parties and resulted in protests. At 01:02 on 4 December, 190 legislators who had arrived at the National Assembly Proceeding Hall unanimously passed a motion to lift martial law, despite attempts by the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command to prevent the vote. At 04:30, Yoon and his cabinet lifted martial law and soon disbanded the Martial Law Command. The opposition subsequently began impeachment proceedings against Yoon and said it would continue to do so if he did not resign. Uproar over the declaration has led to the resignation of several officials in Yoon's administration, including Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who urged Yoon to enact martial law during a last-minute cabinet meeting shortly before the declaration and was second-in-command of the martial law order. Yoon, as well as other officials of his administration, and military officers were investigated for their role in the implementation of the decree.

Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean: 윤석열, pronounced [jun sʰʌŋnjʌɭ]; born 18 December 1960) is a South Korean politician and attorney who served as the 13th president of South Korea from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025. A member of the People Power Party during his presidency, he was the shortest-serving directly elected president in the country's democratic history since 1987. Yoon previously served as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021.

Born in Seoul, Yoon received his bachelor's and master's degrees in law from Seoul National University. In his capacity as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office, he played a key role in convicting former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak for abuse of power. In 2019, President Moon Jae-in appointed Yoon as Prosecutor General of South Korea. Under Yoon's leadership, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office conducted embattled investigations into Cho Kuk, an influential figure in the Moon administration, that led to Cho's resignation as Minister of Justice. Yoon's clashes with the Moon administration prior to his resignation as prosecutor general in 2021 led to his rise as a potential presidential candidate among conservative voters.

Beginning on January 3, 2025, South Korean authorities attempted to arrest Yoon Suk Yeol, president of South Korea at the time. Yoon had confined himself at his official presidential residence since his impeachment on December 14, 2024. The arrest warrant, granted on December 31 by the Seoul Western District Court, stemmed from investigations into Yoon's martial law declaration on December 3, as well as his refusal to attend any of the three summons demanded by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO). On January 15, 2025, after an infiltration of his residence, Yoon handed himself over to the CIO, ending the arrest effort.

The initial and unsuccessful arrest operation on January 3 resulted in a complex security standoff at his presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Yongsan, Seoul, involving multiple security forces and lasting several hours. After roughly six hours of confrontation at Yoon's residence, the CIO suspended their operations, citing safety concerns for personnel. It was unsuccessful mainly due to resistance from the Presidential Security Service and legal objections from Yoon's defense lawyers. The arrest warrant and raid marked the first arrest of a sitting president in the nation's history.

The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK or DP; Korean: 더불어민주당, lit. 'Together Democratic Party') is a liberal political party in South Korea. The DPK and its rival, the People Power Party (PPP), form the two major political parties of South Korea. Since the 2025 presidential election, it is the ruling party, having held a majority in the National Assembly since 2020.

The Democratic Party was founded as the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) on 26 March 2014 as a merger between the previous Democratic Party and the preparatory committee of the New Political Vision Party (NPVP) led by Ahn Cheol-soo. The party changed its name to the current name on 28 December 2015. In the 2016 legislative election, the party won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly, becoming the largest party in the National Assembly. In 2017, the Democratic Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in was elected as the president of South Korea. In 2020, the party won an absolute majority of seats in the National Assembly. In 2022, the Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae Myung lost the election to PPP candidate Yoon Suk Yeol. Later that year, the Democratic Party, Open Democratic Party, and New Wave merged to form a big tent party. The party retained its majority in the 2024 legislative election. In 2025, after the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, the Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae Myung was elected as the president of South Korea.

The People Power Party (PPP; Korean: 국민의힘; lit. Power of Nationals) is a conservative and right-wing political party in South Korea. It is the second-largest party in the National Assembly. The PPP, along with its historic rival the Democratic Party, make up the two largest political parties in South Korea.

The PPP was founded as the United Future Party (UFP) on 17 February 2020 through the merger of the Liberty Korea Party, New Conservative Party, and Onward for Future 4.0, as well as several minor parties and political organizations. It contested the 2020 legislative election together with its satellite party, the Future Korea Party; the alliance achieved the worst conservative result since 1960. The party renamed to the People Power Party on 31 August 2020. It achieved electoral success in the 2021 by-elections. In 2022, PPP presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol was elected as the president of South Korea, followed by PPP victories in the 2022 local elections. Due to the unpopularity of the Yoon administration, the party lost the 2024 legislative election. Yoon declared martial law in December 2024, prompting his impeachment. In 2025, PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo lost the presidential election to Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae Myung, returning PPP to the opposition.

The 2016 South Korean political scandal, often called Park Geun-hye–Choi Soon-sil Gate in South Korea (Korean: 박근혜·최순실 게이트), was a scandal that emerged around October 2016 in relation to the unusual access that Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of shaman-esque cult leader Choi Tae-min, had to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.

Widespread coverage of this South Korean political scandal began in late October 2016. On 29 November, Park offered to begin the process of removing herself from power. On 9 December, Park was impeached, and then-prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn became the acting president. On 21 December, a Special Prosecution Team led by Park Young Soo began to investigate the scandal. On 10 March 2017, the Constitutional Court of Korea ruled to uphold the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye. All eight judges agreed that President Park abused her power, and removed her from office. A new election was held sixty days afterwards, which resulted in the victory of Democratic Party candidate Moon Jae-in. Moon won 41% of the popular vote in the election. The scandal caused the first impeachment of a sitting South Korean president since the impeachment of Roh Moo-hyun on 12 March 2004, and the last until Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment on 14 December 2024.

On 27 December 2024, South Korean prime minister and acting president Han Duck-soo was impeached. The impeachment occurred 13 days after President Yoon Suk Yeol had been impeached as a result of his brief enactment of martial law, making Han acting president.

Opposition Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Chan-dae announced plans to impeach Han on 24 December following his veto of two special counsel bills investigating Yoon and First Lady Kim Keon-hee. On 26 December, the impeachment motion was formally introduced after Han blocked the appointment of three justices to the Constitutional Court of Korea, whose nominations had been approved by the National Assembly.