SEOUL, South Korea – A vote in South Korea’s 300-seat National Assembly to impeach embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol failed Saturday, plunging the nation into political uncertainty for the second time in less than a week.

A majority of 200 votes were required for the impeachment motion, presented by a group of opposition parties in the wake of Mr. Yoon’s stunning declaration of martial law late Tuesday night, to pass.

All but three of Mr. Yoon’s party members, who occupy 108 seats, exited the voting chamber, boycotting the vote and defying calls by the house speaker to return.

As a result, the magic number – 200 votes – could not be reached.

It remains to be seen whether Mr. Yoon will resign. Even his own party head has stated that he should not remain. 

But so far there has been no signal from a man already being called a “zombie” president.

If Mr. Yoon does not declare, politics could be driven from the chamber to the streets.

In 2016, central Seoul was occupied by weekly million-man protests against then-president Park Geun-hye – like Mr. Yoon, a conservative. The public was shocked by news that she was taking policy advice from a corrupt crony who held no official position.

Ms. Park was ousted, then jailed, in 2017. Today, in 2024, Mr. Yoon’s malfeasance looks graver.

His declaration of martial law was characterized by one protester at the scene as “insane.” 

Unquestionably, it looked wildly out of place in modern, vibrantly democratic South Korea, a high-tech, pop-culture superpower. Martial law had previously been a leaf in the playbook of the military regimes that ruled South Korea, with an iron fist and bloody hands, from the 1960s to the 1980s.

It did not stand.

Amid dramatic scenes at the National Assembly — where uncertain special forces troops and police were confronted by thousands of demonstrators who converged after the news broke — lawmakers voted to overturn the decree in the early hours of Wednesday.

Three hours later, Mr. Yoon bowed to the Assembly’s action.

He had been neither seen nor heard by his public until Saturday morning when he made a brief television broadcast.

Mr. Yoon, who has long been suffering from dangerously low approval ratings, admitted his martial law declaration was driven by his “desperation” as a president.

That is likely a reference to his inability to govern effectively due to the opposition’s control of the National Assembly, and to ever-building expectations that he could face impeachment for a number of scandals, some involving his wife.

Mr. Yoon conceded that his declaration had caused “anxiety and inconvenience.” He offered a “sincere apology” to the public who, he said, “must have been very surprised.”

He added that he “would not avoid legal or political responsibility” and vowed that there would be no replay of martial law.

“I will entrust my party with methods to stabilize the political situation, including the remainder of my term,” he said.

That indicates Mr. Yoon’s hope that his fate does not lie in the hands of firebrand opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung.

It was Mr. Lee who evaded police and troops to enter the National Assembly over a fence and rally votes early Wednesday morning. He stands to benefit considerably from an overthrow of Mr. Yoon. His leftist Democratic Party of Korea would likely sweep the next presidential election.

However, the head of Yoon’s own right-wing People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, has emerged as the critical powerbroker in this political crisis.

Though it is a minority, the PPP occupies 108 seats in the Assembly. That means no vote can reach a two-thirds majority unless PPP members join in.

Over the last four days, Mr. Han has swayed in all directions.

On the night of martial law, he joined the vote to undo the presidential decree. 

He subsequently indicated that his party would not impeach, but the following day, after grim details about martial law planning were released, he indicated that they would.

This morning, amid Mr. Yoon’s public broadcast, Mr. Han appeared to turn again. That was borne out in the National Assembly tonight.

What happens next is unclear.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo – a long-time political operator, whose movements on Tuesday indicate he had no inkling of Mr. Yoon’s autocoup – stands ready to take over the reins of government if the president resigns.

For now, Mr. Yoon, who has been deserted by multiple cabinet colleagues, remains in office.

Opposition parties vowed to repeat impeachment motions next week. One pundit, who dubs Mr. Yoon “a zombie president,” said the wheels of governance look set to grind to a halt.

“Everything Yoon complained about – obstruction and non-cooperation, which he used as a pretext for martial law – are going to get ten times worse,” said Dan Pinkston, a Seoul-based international relations professor at Troy University.

Unless Mr. Yoon steps down, Mr. Pinkston warned, “I don’t see a clear pathway out of this.”

In a nation where mass protest has a long history, movement is already underway.

“People are very angry, they are now demanding Yoon step down,” Yang Sun-mook, a former head of the DPK’s foreign affairs committee, said by phone from noisy demonstrations outside the National Assembly building this evening. “The people are going to give some pressure, there will be mobilization, it is going to escalate.”

Mr. Yoon is not totally isolated.

Some 10,000 mainly elderly conservative protesters converged Saturday on downtown Seoul’s Gwanghwamun district.

“We support martial law!” said one gentleman waving American and South Korean flags at the district’s iconic intersection. “Yoon Suk Yeol is innocent!”

The contours of Mr. Yoon’s autocoup became clearer Friday, as more officials and observers spoke up and more details were made public.

The key target of his action, carried out by special forces units and police, was not just the National Assembly. It was also the National Election Committee.

A Korean academic, who requested anonymity, explained the thinking behind the attempted seizure of the NEC’s computers and data.

Estimating that “25 percent of Koreans,” are suspicious about years of election manipulation, he said, “Under current law, the president or administration cannot ask for an audit or an inspection of the NEC.”

Calling that situation “a structural problem,” while alleging wrongdoing in the election machinery, he claimed, “During last April‘s general elections, 100 percent of the early votes were won by the DPK, but this is not a communist country: Is that statistically possible?”

From this explanation, had Mr. Yoon nullified the National Assembly and proven electoral interference, he could feasibly have ejected lawmakers who had won seats via foul means and shifted the political balance in his favor. 

Update: This story has been updated to reflect that all but three of Mr. Yoon’s party members exited the voting chamber.

• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.