South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday heard the last of the oral arguments in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial.
The court’s decision on whether Yoon will be reinstated or removed from office is expected by mid-March.
Yoon has denied that he did anything wrong when he declared martial law on Dec. 3. In his closing statement Tuesday, he defended the declaration, saying it was a “proclamation that the nation was facing an existential crisis.”
He told the court that “external forces, including North Korea, along with anti-state elements within our society” were “working together to seriously threaten our national security and sovereignty.”
The liberal opposition-controlled National Assembly impeached Yoon, a conservative, after his short-lived Dec. 3 martial law decree. They accused Yoon of taking the extraordinary measure, which is reserved for national emergencies or times of war, without proper justification.
In his statement, Yoon said he “could no longer neglect a do-or-die crisis facing this country” and that he had “tried to inform the people of these anti-state acts of wickedness by the mammoth opposition party and appealed to the people to stop it with their surveillance and criticism.”
Yoon had said the opposition parties blocked a revision to an anti-espionage law, preventing the prosecution of foreign nationals spying on South Korea.
“This was never a decision made for my personal benefit,” he told the court Tuesday.
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) pushed for an amendment to the law to broaden its scope from targeting “enemy states” to include “foreign countries,” citing threats posed by Chinese espionage. The opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) blocked the revision for fear of potential misuse of the law.
Yoon also was arrested last month and indicted on rebellion charges after his declaration. The charges carry possible penalties that include life imprisonment or a death sentence.
After declaring martial law, Yoon ordered troops and police officers into the National Assembly where lawmakers were gathering to veto his decree. He said it was not his intention to prevent the lawmakers, who unanimously voted against the decree, from doing their work. He said he deployed the security forces to maintain law and order.
However, some commanders of the forces sent to the assembly told investigators and assembly hearings that they were ordered to drag the lawmakers from the assembly.
An opposition lawyer had an emotional reaction to that tactic at the impeachment trial, telling the court, “As a citizen and a father, I feel a sense of rage and betrayal toward Yoon, who tried to turn my son into a martial law soldier.”
If Yoon’s impeachment is upheld by the court, a new election must be held within 60 days.
VOA’s Christy Lee contributed to this article. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
