South Korea President's Indictment: What Happens Next?

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025.  EPA/Kim Hong-Ji / POOL
South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025. EPA/Kim Hong-Ji / POOL
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South Korea President's Indictment: What Happens Next?

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025.  EPA/Kim Hong-Ji / POOL
South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends the third hearing of his impeachment trial in connection to his short-lived imposition of martial law at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, 21 January 2025. EPA/Kim Hong-Ji / POOL

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol was indicted for his martial law declaration that plunged the country into political turmoil, with prosecutors accusing him of being a "ringleader of insurrection".

His indictment on Sunday makes him the country's first sitting head of state to face a criminal trial for his short-lived martial law declaration on December 3.

Yoon has been ordered to remain in a 12-square-meter (129-square-foot) cell at a detention center in Seoul for the duration of his trial.

AFP takes a look at what lies ahead.

What happens to Yoon now?

Yoon has been charged with insurrection for his martial law declaration, which lawmakers voted down hours later before impeaching him.

The 64-year-old resisted arrest for two weeks in a tense stand-off between his security team and investigators at his official residence in Seoul but was finally taken into custody on January 15.

The court must rule on the case within six months, or he will be released.

If Yoon is found guilty of insurrection, he faces the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Prosecutors previously raised concerns about the risk of evidence destruction, citing it as a reason to detain him.

But Yoon's lawyers said the investigation lacked legitimacy from the start and have challenged the legality of his indictment.

"We are discussing a bail request (for Yoon) with the court," his lawyers told AFP on Monday, without giving any further details.

Where is Yoon now?

For now, Yoon is housed in a cell equipped with a television, sink, and a single-person desk that doubles as a dining table.

There is also a toilet, folding bed and Yoon has been provided with an electric mat to stay warm during the winter.

Meals are served in his cell and the impeached president must clean his dishes in the sink in accordance with prison regulations.

His solitary cell -- which typically holds several inmates -- resembles those occupied by two former presidents, Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, who also served jail time.

Is he still president?

Yoon remains head of state, but he is not in charge -- his duties have been suspended and delegated to acting President Choi Sang-mok.

Separate from the court deciding on his insurrection charges, the country's Constitutional Court has also been deliberating whether Yoon should be removed from office ever since MPs voted to impeach him.

Their ruling could come as early as February or as late as June, and is the only official way to remove Yoon from office.

Six of the eight sitting judges must approve the impeachment for this to happen.

Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University, said the Constitutional Court is expected to conclude its deliberations before two of the judges finish their terms mid-April.

If the court rejects impeachment and finds that Yoon's martial law declaration was lawful, he will be reinstated.

But if it is upheld, an election must be held within 60 days.

Who would win?

Leading in recent polls is Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party -- with all the other rivals lagging behind, according to the latest Gallup poll.

But analysts caution that it is too early to say whether Lee will emerge victorious, as approval ratings for his party and Yoon's remain closely aligned.

"It will ultimately come down to moderate voters to determine the country's next phase," South Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo reported Monday.



Rwanda-backed M23 Rebels Occupy 2nd Major City in Congo's East

A general view of pedestrians walking in a street in Bukavu on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Amani Alimasi / AFP)
A general view of pedestrians walking in a street in Bukavu on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Amani Alimasi / AFP)
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Rwanda-backed M23 Rebels Occupy 2nd Major City in Congo's East

A general view of pedestrians walking in a street in Bukavu on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Amani Alimasi / AFP)
A general view of pedestrians walking in a street in Bukavu on December 17, 2025. (Photo by Amani Alimasi / AFP)

Rwanda-backed rebels have occupied a second major city in mineral-rich eastern Congo, the government said Sunday, as M23 rebels confirmed they were in the city to restore order after it was abandoned by Congolese forces.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups that includes the M23, said in a statement that its fighters “decided to assist the population of Bukavu” in addressing its security challenges under the “old regime” in the city of 1.3 million people, The Associated Press reported.
"Our forces have been working to restore the security for the people and their property, much to the satisfaction of the entire population,” alliance spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said in a statement.
The rebels saw little resistance from government forces against the unprecedented expansion of their reach after years of fighting. Congo's government vowed to restore order in Bukavu but there was no sign of soldiers. Many were seen fleeing on Saturday alongside thousands of civilians.
The M23 are the most prominent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control of eastern Congo’s trillions of dollars in mineral wealth that's critical for much of the world's technology. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to the United Nations experts.
The fighting has displaced more than 6 million people in the region, creating the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
Bernard Maheshe Byamungu, one of the M23 leaders who has been sanctioned by the UN Security Council for rights abuses, stood in front of the South Kivu governor’s office in Bukavu and told residents they have been living in a “jungle."
“We are going to clean up the disorder left over from the old regime,” Byamungu said, as some in the small crowd of young men cheered the rebels on to “go all the way to Kinshasa," Congo's capital, nearly 1,000 miles away.
Congo's communications ministry in a statement on social media acknowledged for the first time that Bukavu had been “occupied” and said the national government was “doing everything possible to restore order and territorial integrity” in the region.
One Bukavu resident, Blaise Byamungu, said the rebels marched into the city that had been “abandoned by all the authorities and without any loyalist force."
“Is the government waiting for them to take over other towns to take action? It’s cowardice,” Byamungu added.
Unlike in 2012, when the M23 briefly seized Goma and withdrew after international pressure, analysts have said the rebels this time are eyeing political power.
The fighting in Congo has connections with a decadeslong ethnic conflict. The M23 says it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo. Rwanda has claimed the Tutsis are being persecuted by Hutus and former militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 800,000 Tutsis and others in Rwanda. Many Hutus fled to Congo after the genocide and founded the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda militia group.
Rwanda says the militia group is “fully integrated” into the Congolese military, which denies it.
But the new face of the M23 in the region — Corneille Nangaa — is not Tutsi, giving the group “a new, more diverse, Congolese face, as M23 has always been seen as a Rwanda-backed armed group defending Tutsi minorities,” according to Christian Moleka, a political scientist at the Congolese think tank Dypol.
Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi, whose government on Saturday asserted that Bukavu remained under its control, has warned of the risk of a regional expansion of the conflict.
Congo's forces were being supported in Goma by troops from South Africa and in Bukavu by troops from Burundi. But Burundi's president, Evariste Ndayishimiye, appeared to suggest on social media his country would not retaliate in the fighting.
The conflict was high on the African Union summit's agenda in Ethiopia over the weekend, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres warning it risked spiraling into a regional conflagration.
Still, African leaders and the international community have been reluctant to take decisive action against M23 or Rwanda, which has one of Africa's most powerful militaries. Most continue to call for a ceasefire and a dialogue between Congo and the rebels.