South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law order

(AP) — South Korea’s parliament voted Saturday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol as authorities investigate allegations of rebellion over his controversial Dec. 3 martial law decree that has caused huge political turmoil in the country.

The National Assembly passed the motion 204-85 in a floor vote. Yoon’s presidential powers and duties will be suspended after the copies of a document on the impeachment are delivered to him and to the Constitutional Court.

The court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers. If he’s thrown out of office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.

It was the second National Assembly vote on Yoon’s impeachment motion. Last Saturday, Yoon survived an impeachment vote after most ruling party lawmakers boycotted the floor vote. Some People Power Party lawmakers had since announced their intentions to vote for Yoon’s impeachment in a second vote, as public protests against Yoon intensified and his approval rating plummeted.

Tens of thousands of people have braved the bitter cold and poured onto the streets of the capital, Seoul, every night for the past two weeks, calling for Yoon’s ouster and arrest. They shouted slogans, sang, danced and waved K-pop light sticks. Smaller groups of Yoon’s conservative supporters — still in the thousands — have also been rallying in Seoul, denouncing attempts to impeach the president. Both rallies have largely been peaceful.

After declaring martial law, Yoon sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the parliament to try to impede its vote on the decree before they withdrew after the parliament rejected it. No major violence occurred.

Opposition parties and many experts accuse Yoon of rebellion, citing a law clause that categorizes as rebellion the staging of a riot against established state authorities to undermine the constitution. They also say that by law a president in South Korea is allowed to declare martial law only during wartime or similar emergencies and has no rights to suspend parliament’s operations even under martial law.

The impeachment motion alleged that Yoon “committed rebellion that hurts peace on the Republic of Korea by staging a series of riots.” It said Yoon’s mobilization of military and police forces threatened the National Assembly and the public and that his martial law decree was aimed at disturbing the Constitution.

In a fiery speech on Thursday, Yoon rejected the rebellion charges, calling his martial law order an act of governance. The conservative Yoon said he aimed to issue a warning to the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, calling it “a monster” and “anti-state forces” that he argued has flexed its legislative muscle to impeach top officials and undermined the government’s budget bill for next year.