BBC:
South Korea’s beleaguered president Yook Suk Yeol was removed from office on Friday after a panel of judges upheld his impeachment over a short-lived martial law attempt last December.
The 64-year-old’s shock military takeover on 3 December was reversed after lawmakers defied security forces to vote it down. Parliament voted to impeach him later than month.
An election for the country’s next leader must now be held within 60 days.
The ruling was met with mixed responses – reflecting political divisions within the country – with the anti-Yoon crowd exploding into jubiliant cheers, while his supporters burst into loud boos.
Yoon is also facing a separate insurrection charge, making him the country’s first sitting president charged with a crime.
In South Korea, insurrection is punishable by life in prison or death. However the latter is unlikely, given that the country has not carried out executions in decades.
Yoon was arrested in January following a weeks-long stand-off between anti-corruption investigators and his personal security detail. He was released in March after his detention was overturned on technical grounds.
Yoon justified his extraordinary martial law order last year by accusing the opposition of “trying to throw overthrow the free democracy”.
But it soon became clear that he was motivated by his own political troubles.
Plagued with personal scandals and mounting pressure from the opposition, Yoon’s popularity had been falling since he took office in 2022.
