Yoon Suk Yeol’s political career may be over, but his troubles are not.
Ex-President Yoon, a former prosecutor, was removed from office by the Constitutional Court on Friday. But he still faces criminal charges of leading an insurrection over his short-lived imposition of martial law on Dec. 3. A separate trial on those charges began in February and is ongoing.
Prosecutors say that Mr. Yoon committed insurrection when he banned all political activities and ordered military commanders to break the National Assembly’s doors down “with axes” or “by shooting, if necessary” and “drag out” lawmakers.
Mr. Yoon has repeatedly rejected the claims of orchestrating an insurrection. He said that he declared martial law to protect the nation from “anti-state forces” who infiltrated the government.
If the court finds Mr. Yoon guilty, he could face a long prison term. But many of South Korea’s former imprisoned presidents, including Park Geun-hye, who was convicted of bribery, have ended up being released early. Ms. Park was pardoned in 2021 by then-president Moon Jae-in, less than five years into her 20-year prison term.
The criminal case will not be directly affected by the Constitutional Court ruling that upheld his impeachment.
Mr. Yoon’s time in office was plagued with problems and scandals. After his narrow electoral win in 2022, he soon became a deeply unpopular and divisive leader.
As president Mr. Yoon used lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he called disinformation, efforts that were largely aimed at news organizations. The police and prosecutors repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office accused of spreading “fake news.”
Mr. Yoon was also accused of using his power to advance his own interests. He was accused of pressuring the Defense Ministry to whitewash an investigation into the death of a South Korean marine in 2023, and vetoed a bill pushed through Parliament by the opposition calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the claim.
Mr. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, was also at the center of some of his troubles. In late 2023, spy cam footage emerged showing Ms. Kim accepting a $2,200 Dior pouch as a gift. The episode roiled his political party and became a significant issue ahead of parliamentary elections.
Relations with North Korea sank to longtime lows after Mr. Yoon took office. For decades, the two Koreas — which never signed a peace treaty after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce — have swung between conciliatory tones and saber rattling. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has been unpredictable and bellicose, developing nuclear weapons and supplying Russia with munitions and troops for its war against Ukraine.
Mr. Yoon adopted a confrontational approach and called for spreading the idea of freedom to the North to penetrate the information blackout there. He also expanded joint military drills with the United States and Japan.
North Korea, under Mr. Kim, has veered toward a more hawkish stance, shutting off all dialogue with Seoul and Washington, doubling down on testing nuclear-capable missiles, and vowing to treat South Korea not as a partner for reunification but as an enemy that the North must annex should war break out.
Mr. Yoon leaves behind a government without an elected leader and facing a presidential poll within 60 days.
“It has been a great honor for me to work for the country,” Yoon Suk Yeol said in a statement released through his lawyers after he was removed from office. “I thank those who supported and cheered me despite my shortcomings. I am regretful and sorry that I could not live up to your expectations,” he said, without directly commenting on the Constitutional Court’s decision.
Mr. Yoon and his wife will need to vacate the official residence where he once holed up to resist arrest, protected by barricades and scores of security guards.
The couple is expected to move back into their private home in Seoul, where they had lived before Mr. Yoon’s election. But they will continue to have the protection of the presidential security services — one of the few benefits allowed for a former leader ousted through impeachment.