Protestors supporting and opposing South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held rival protests several hundred metres apart in Seoul on Saturday, a week after their leader was impeached over his short-lived declaration of martial law.
Yoon’s presidential powers are currently suspended but he still remains in office. He has yet to comply with various summonses by authorities investigating whether the martial law —which he declared late on December 3 and rescinded hours later— amounted to insurrection.
Yoon is also yet to respond to attempts to contact him by the Constitutional Court. Note that this court is responsible for deciding whether to remove him from office or restore his presidential powers but the court has announced plans to hold its first preparatory hearing on Friday.
Saturday’s pro- and anti-Yoon protests were held in Gwanghwamun -the heart of the capital and no clashes were reported as at the time of filing this report.
Tens of thousands of anti-Yoon protesters, mainly made up of people in their 20s and 30s, gathered around 3 p.m., waving K-Pop light sticks and signs with sayings such as “Arrest! Imprison! Insurrection chief Yoon Suk Yeol” to catchy K-pop tunes.
Several thousand pro-Yoon protesters, chiefly older and more conservative people opposing Yoon’s removal and supporting the a restoration of his powers, had assembled since around midday.
Yoon had cited claims of election hacking and “anti-state” pro-North Korean sympathisers as his justification for imposing the martial law, which the National Election Commission has since denied.
