Why Yoon’s martial law bid poses ‘severe’ threat to South Korea’s democracy

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived bid to plunge the country under martial law “threatened the very foundations” of democracy in his country, with previous presidents convicted or impeached on perceivably milder grounds, according to observers.

They also add that several legal and procedural questions still surround Yoon’s surprise decision on Tuesday night.

Seoul’s lawmakers, who had scrambled overnight through military blockades to vote down martial law, are now calling for the president’s resignation or impeachment. Yoon’s decree lasted only six hours before he backtracked following the vote. Any impeachment vote against Yoon is expected to take place on Friday at the earliest, according to media reports.

Lee Seong-hyon, an associate at the Harvard University Asia Centre whose research focuses on the Koreas, said that compared with his predecessors, Yoon’s actions stood out as “extremely severe, threatening the very foundations of South Korea’s democratic system”.

From December 2016 to March 2017, former president Park Geun-hye was convicted and sentenced to more than two decades in prison for abuse of power, coercion and bribery.

The court ruled she had colluded with her close friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure conglomerates such as electronics giant Samsung and retail chain Lotte to give millions of dollars to foundations run by Choi.