Every day, thousands of protesters gather near the South Korean Supreme Court, which has reinforced its walls with Razor Wire, as its eight judges are preparing a decision that could form the future of the Republic of the country. Many are shouting for the court to remove Yoon Suk Year, the country’s president, accusing him of “uprising”. With a close distance, an opposing team chants for his reintegration, calling for his challenge to Parliament “Diay”.
They never have jitters to run as high in South Korea before a court ruling as they do now, while the country is looking forward to its constitutional court to decide whether to remove or restore Mr Yoon. The court’s ruling could help to end the months of political turmoil that Mr Yoon released on December 3 in his failed attempt to place his country under military law.
Or could push the country into a deeper political crisis.
The southern Koreans have been tired of prolonged political uncertainty and want the court to decide soon. But she has kept them aside for weeks, giving no hint when her judges perhaps deliver the most subsequent decision of their career.
Police are preparing for the worst, no matter how the decision goes. Schools, street vendors and a former royal palace in the neighborhood of the Constitutional Court will close the day of the ruling. Police have called for the removal of rocks, empty bottles, trash bins – anything that could be a weapon – from the streets. About 14,000 police officers are ready to develop. The aircraft have been banned from flying over the court and 86,000 private weapons in the country must remain locked in police stations.
As the discussions dragged, conspiracy theories abound and speculation flourished. Some suggested that the court was irreparably separated. (Votes at least six of the eight judges need to remove Mr Yoon. Otherwise, he will be restored.) Others said he only took time to make his historical award -winning waterproofing.
“The country is at a crossroads,” said Cho Gab-Je, a prominent journalist and publisher of South Korea who has covered the political development of the nation since 1971.
Mr Yoon’s military law lasted only six hours, but caused a fury among many southern Koreans. The National Assembly accused him on December 14, suspending him from office. If Mr Yoon is removed, South Korea will elect a new president within 60 days.
Polls in recent weeks have shown that the southern Koreans preferred Mr Yoon’s removal to reintegrate it about 3 to 2. But in a deeply divided nation, Parliament’s decision to violate him has also gone galvanizing political rights, fueled their fear.
Regardless of what it decides, the court will be angry at much of society. People on both sides have shaved their heads or have taken a hunger strike to push their demands.
“If it supports Yoon’s challenge, there will be some turmoil, but the political landscape will shift quickly to the presidential election,” said Shang E. Ha, a professor of political science at Sogang University in Seoul. “But if he returns to the office, even those who wait patiently for a decision will go to the streets. We will see riots.”
In a typical anti-Ga rally, participants hold signs that call him “the leader of the uprising” and chant for his “immediate removal”.
But the far -right Christian pastors and legislators who supported Mr Yoon threatened to “destroy” the court if he decided to remove him. In January, many Yoon supporters vandalized a Seoul District Court after a judge there issued a warrant to arrest him in a revolt charge. Two supporters of Mr Yoon died after a fire in protest of his question.
Police have also commissioned bodyguards to Lee Jae-Myung, the main leader of the opposition, after his party reported anonymous threats of murder. Officers have accompanied the eight judges for moving to and from court.
“I call on people to respect and accept what the court decides,” said Finance Minister Choi Sang-Mok, the active president of the country, while expressing concern about the potential for violent conflicts.
When the court decided to remove another documented conservative leader, President Park Geun-Hye in 2017, there were no violent deaths in protests, though four people who rally in his support died or from heart failure.
In an increasingly polarized era, Mr Yoon’s dispute test is even more emotionally charged.
In 2017, competing political parties agreed weeks before the court ruling that they would honor it. Ms Park waited silently for the decision, while her party was removed from the leader who was frustrated for corruption and abuse of power.
Mr Yoon, who also faces a criminal category of uprising, has not intended to go quietly. The Power Party people and the elderly and ecclesiastical voters of the country have gathered behind him.
He has defended the statement of military law as an attempt to save his country from the “dictatorship” of the National Assembly controlled by the opposition and the “anti-state forces”.
But the political instability that Mr Yoon began has abandoned his country without an elected leader at his wheel at a time when North Korea escalates its nuclear threat and strengthens military ties with Russia. Although South Korea is one of America’s main allies, its leader has not yet met President Donald J. Trump, while the leaders of other nations, including Japan, have.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has decided to skip South Korea on his upcoming trip to the Indo-Pacific area, while the political gap remains. In February, the Republic of the Intelligence Unit of Economics 2024 downgraded South Korea from a “complete” to “wrong democracy”.
In his latest argument in the Constitutional Court last month, Mr Yoon said that if he was left to repeat the presidency, he would leave domestic cases to the prime minister and focus on diplomacy. But Mr Lee, the leader of the opposition, said Mr Yoon has already done enough damage to the global image of the country.
“We can overcome the current crisis only when we restore normal leadership,” he said.
