South Korea’s Leadership Crisis, Explained

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law has created South Korea’s biggest constitutional crisis since the country democratized in the late 1980s.

On Dec. 14, Mr. Yoon, a deeply unpopular leader, was impeached by the National Assembly, making him the third South Korean president to be suspended from power through such a vote. But the uncertainty over the country’s political future has only deepened since.

On Friday, the country’s opposition parties, which dominate the National Assembly, impeached Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been serving as acting president since Mr. Yoon’s impeachment two weeks ago. Choi Sang-mok, the finance minister, was named the new acting president.

The parliamentary vote on Friday was the first time in South Korean history that an acting president had been impeached, adding to the political turmoil created by Mr. Yoon’s ill-fated martial law and his impeachment.

In addition to his impeachment, Mr. Yoon faces a criminal inquiry, the first ever to target a sitting South Korean president.

Here is how the crisis has unfolded.

Why was the President Yoon impeached?

Mr. Yoon’s martial law decree on Dec. 3, which put the country under military rule for the first time in 45 years, lasted only six hours. But it threw South Korea’s democracy into chaos and drew public outrage, recalling the country’s painful history of military dictatorship decades ago.