Impeached President Yoon arrested in second attempt: What is behind the action-packed month in South Korea

South Korea hit the headlines on December 3, when Yoon made a failed bid to impose martial law. Since then, the country has seen protests, the President and Prime Minister impeached, and finally, the President arrested following two attempts.

Here’s what has gone wrong in South Korea, and why.

The martial law that wasn’t

President Yoon Suk-yeol has faced criticism ever since he took office in May 2022. The criticism has been against several of his domestic policies—involving issues like the controversial decision to establish his presidential office in the Ministry of National Defense building in Seoul’s busy Yongsan district, Seoul, instead of the Blue House which had been used as the presidential office for over seven decades in post-independence South Korea; to the way he dealt with the 2024 medical crisis in the country, involving enrollment quota for medical students.

Then there has been the long-standing issue of Yoon interfering in investigations into allegations of corruption against his wife Kim Keon-hee. On foreign policies matters, Yoon has been criticised in South Korea for having a pro-Japanese stance, particularly on several historical issues in context of Japan’s brutal colonial legacy during its occupation of the Korean peninsula (1910-1945).

It was on December 3, 2024, with the declaration of martial law, that the tumult escalated. Hundreds of South Koreans took to the streets in protest, and lawmakers gathered in the National Assembly to reject the martial law.

On December 4, 2024, approximately 190 members of South Korea’s National Assembly, from six opposition parties, submitted a motion to impeach Yoon, with the intent to discuss it the following day and vote on the motion on December 7.

Simultaneously, South Korea’s police opened an investigation after cases of treason were filed against Yoon for his declaration of martial law. South Korea’s main opposition party, the Democratic Party, proposed appointing a permanent special counsel to investigate Yoon for treason.

Yoon and his political supporters perhaps realised some lines had been crossed. On December 7, Yoon was forced to apologise for his actions, saying martial law was a “desperate decision made by me, the president, as the final authority responsible for state affairs”, and saying it would not be repeated.

Impeachment

On December 7, the first impeachment vote failed after 195 lawmakers attended the National Assembly, out of the required 200, because lawmakers who belonged to and supported Yoon’s party, the PPP, boycotted the attempt. Two days later, South Korea’s Ministry of Justice barred Yoon from traveling abroad.

Protests grew, as did criticism of Members of Parliament who had blocked attempts to impeach Yoon. For many in South Korea, Yoon’s actions had brought back painful memories of living under brutal dictatorship and military-authoritarianism post the Korean War in the 1950s. South Korea has only been governed democratically since 1988, and through the wide-scale protests following Yoon’s actions, it was clear South Koreans were in no mood for authoritarianism again.

On December 14, a second impeachment motion was passed after 204 lawmakers, including 12 from the PPP, voted in favor. Yoon’s powers and duties were taken over temporarily by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, pending a final decision by the Constitutional Court of Korea.

However, on December 27, Prime Minister Han was also impeached on charges that included obstructing probe against Yoon and his wife, colluding with Yoon on martial law, and blocking the appointment of justices to fill vacancies in the Constitutional Court.

Since December 2024, Yoon had been refusing to comply with summons from the corruption investigation agency.

The North Korea angle

In the first week of January, South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, the agency responsible for prosecuting crimes and investigating allegations against high-ranking officials or their direct family members, began investigating Yoon for treason based on evidence that he had attempted to manufacture a conflict with North Korea by launching a drone.

This investigation was related to reports that South Korea’s former defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, had ordered the drone incursion that dropped leaflets over North Korea’s capital Pyongyang in October 2024, to provoke a military conflict as part of Yoon’s plans to declare martial law.

The arrest drama

The first arrest warrant for Yoon was issued on December 31, on charges related to abuse of power and orchestration of the martial law crisis.

Following that, for two weeks in January 2025, Yoon had been hunkering in his official residence in Seoul, outside which hundreds of his supporters had gathered, engaging in clashes with the police and political opponents. Since January 3, Yoon’s Presidential Security Service had been preventing authorities from issuing the arrest warrant against Yoon.

Finally, on January 15, Yoon was arrested over insurrection charges. Over 3,000 police officers had marched to his residence to arrest him.

What happens next in South Korea 

According to a Reuters report, South Korea’s authorities now have 48 hours to question Yoon, after which they must seek a warrant to detain him for up to 20 days or release him. Yoon’s lawyers have said the arrest warrant is illegal because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team set up to investigate him had no legal mandate to do so.

Over the last several weeks, many of Yoon’s supporters and conservative press in South Korea have drawn parallels between their embattled leader and incoming US President Donald Trump, who has his own legal troubles and investigations.