{"id":2540797,"date":"2025-06-01T23:52:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T23:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/2540797\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T23:52:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T23:52:49","slug":"thousands-protest-for-south-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/2540797\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands protest for South Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in South Korea to protest the dismissal of former President Yoon Suk-yeol following his botched martial law declaration.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>South Korea\u2019s Constitutional Court voted unanimously on Friday to oust Yoon for attempting to subvert civilian government on December 3, sparking elections in June after months of political instability.<\/p>\n<p>The extended wait for the court\u2019s decision heightened tensions in the Asian nation, driving far-right backing for Yoon and weekly duelling protests in the capital Seoul.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AP25093235622252-1743728075.jpg\" alt=\"Thousands hit the streets for South Korea\u2019s impeached ex-president Yoon\" width=\"672\" height=\"448\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A new presidential election must be held within 60 days, according to the constitution. Until then, acting president Han Duck-soo will remain in Yoon\u2019s position.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, Yoon\u2019s supporters took to the streets in the capital and braved the rain, chanting \u201cImpeachment is invalid!\u201d and \u201cNullify the snap election!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yoon had defended his martial law attempt as necessary to root out \u201canti-state forces\u201d and what he claimed were threats from North Korea.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, however, he said he would accept the court\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDear citizens, it has been a great honour to be able to work for the Republic of Korea. I am deeply grateful to all of you who have supported and cheered for me, despite my many shortcomings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>While there were many scenes of jubilation in Seoul on Friday from those opposed to Yoon\u2019s rule, with people hugging and crying after the ruling was delivered, Yoon had found backing from extreme religious figures and right-wing YouTubers who experts say used misinformation to court support for the former prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is seen as the frontrunner in the next election, experts say, and his party has taken a more conciliatory approach towards North Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Some Yoon supporters, however, are worried about the prospect of a Lee presidency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in South Korea to protest the dismissal of former Presid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2540798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[785168],"tags":[786593,20612,785514,276077,3575],"class_list":{"0":"post-2540797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-korea","8":"tag-martial-law","9":"tag-south-korea","10":"tag-yoon-suk-yeol","11":"tag-276077","12":"tag-3575"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/wakoka.com\/@news\/114610806009436567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2540798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}