President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in the name of protecting the country from unspecified anti-state and pro-North Korea forces. According to South Korea’s Constitution, the president can declare martial law under certain conditions. The day Yoon declared martial law, however, those conditions had not been met: the country was neither attacked by North Korea nor experienced an unprecedented contingency.
Consequently, Yoon’s declaration of martial law was rapidly overturned by the National Assembly, which then voted to impeach him. Yoon’s impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court in April 2025.
That means the last two presidents from the conservative party – Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk-yeol – were both impeached for committing illegal acts. Park and Yoon were removed from office by unanimous decisions from the Constitutional Court in 2017 and 2025, respectively, implying that there was no controversy over the National Assembly’s decision to impeach them.
A year after Yoon’s failed attempt to rule the country through martial law, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who had narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, finally succeeded in taking the presidency. With Lee’s victory in the snap presidential election on June 3, the ruling Democratic Party – which already held more than half of the 300-seats in the National Assembly – is now facing a favorable political environment. Effectively, the party can carry out any initiatives it wants.
Yoon’s illegal acts during the process of declaring martial law have been revealed by the ensuing special prosecutors’ investigations and court trials. According to the testimonies from individuals who were involved in Yoon’s martial law, Yoon ordered the chief of the National Police Agency to arrest lawmakers who were trying to enter the National Assembly to lift martial law. Also, a list of figures to be arrested – including the leaders of the opposition Democratic Party, Yoon’s own People Power Party (PPP), and the speaker of the National Assembly – was delivered to the commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command and first deputy director of National Intelligence Service.
Yoon attempted to downplay his martial law, which lasted for only a few hours. However, he was accused of mentioning “war powers” to his Cabinet members only months after he assumed office, according to the local news reports. Yoon’s party did not hold a majority in the National Assembly at any point during his term, and his frustration seems to have spiked after the 2024 general elections, when the DP led by Lee won a landslide victory.
Thanks to those in the National Intelligence Service, the military and the police who chose not to follow Yoon’s illegal orders, the National Assembly was able to vote to lift Yoon’s martial law only three hours after the declaration.
Only 18 of 108 PPP lawmakers attended the emergency plenary session of the National Assembly to vote on lifting martial law at around 1:00 a.m. on December 4, 2024. When Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly, urged the lawmakers to come to the assembly immediately, Choo Kyung-ho, who was the floor leader of the PPP at that moment, intentionally impeded the PPP lawmakers to head to the National Assembly by changing the gathering site of the party repeatedly. Later, it was confirmed that Choo had a phone call with Yoon around 11:30 p.m. on December 3, about an hour after Yoon declared martial law.
Since the impeachment, three special prosecutor teams have conducted extensive investigations of Yoon and his wife over multiple allegations, including insurrection, abuse of authority and stock manipulation. As a result, the PPP’s approval ratings have been stuck in the 30s while the DP’s are in the 40s. Under the current political environment, it is likely that the DP would win a landslide victory in the local elections scheduled on June 3, 2026, the way it did in 2018 following Park’s impeachment.
Given that political landscape, it was expected that the PPP would finally draw a line between Yoon and itself to garner support from the centrists whose votes are crucial to win the upcoming elections. However, instead the PPP has doubled down on defending Yoon. In other words, the PPP appears to have no fear of losing in the upcoming local elections or even general elections scheduled in 2028.
Following Yoon’s impeachment, the PPP elected a leader, Jang Dong-hyeok, who defended Yoon’s martial law while blaming the DP for forcing him into a corner. In fact, the majority of the PPP’s supreme council is pro-Yoon politicians..
There is a minor group within the PPP who contends the leadership should make a public apology for Yoon’s martial law and the chaos that South Koreans had to face over the past year. However, as they are mostly first-time lawmakers, their voice has had little impact on the PPP. It seems clear that most party members have no interest in accepting the general public’s anger and opinion on what happened on December 3 of last year.
In light of the PPP’s far-right shift, it is fair to say that only pro-Yoon lawmakers would be able to win the party’s primary elections. This is why the PPP lawmakers are still defending Yoon: not out of real loyalty, but because it’s necessary to secure their future candidacy in upcoming polls.
The exact rules for primary elections are normally set months before the general, local, or presidential elections but the PPP has mostly adopted system where party member voting counts for 70 percent and public opinion polls for 30 percent. Considering this voting system, it is natural for PPP lawmakers to try to defend Yoon until the Supreme Court makes a final ruling over his allegations, which will likely take years. That gives them standing to appeal to PPP members in the primary elections that they were active fighters against Lee while defending Yoon.
During the primary elections for the local and general elections in 2022 and 2024, respectively, anti-Yoon figures such as Yoon Seung-min, a former senior lawmaker who contended against Yoon in the 2021 primary presidential election, faced massive challenges in competing against pro-Yoon candidates. This could be an invaluable lesson for those who want to receive the nomination in safe seats for the PPP.
Ultimately, the fate of the PPP will be determined in the 2028 general elections as it will not mind if it is defeated in the local elections next year. If the party fails to secure more than 100 seats in the National Assembly, the DP can even amend the Constitution on its own.
Regardless of the outcome in the 2028 general elections, what is apparent is that the PPP leadership are pursuing their personal gain while gifting the DP power in the long run. That effectively leaves South Korea without a well-functioning conservative political party.