South Korea's president shocked the country Tuesday night when he out of nowhere declared a state of emergency, the first in nearly 50 years.

Jun Suk-yeol's radical decision, announced on a late-night TV broadcast, cited "anti-state forces" and the threat from North Korea as reasons, but it soon became clear that it was not driven by external threats but by his own desperate political problems. .

However, it prompted thousands to gather in parliament in protest as opposition MPs rushed there to hold an emergency vote to repeal the measure.

Defeated, Yol emerged hours later to accept the parliament's vote and lift the state of emergency. Now he faces the possibility of impeachment and even expulsion from his own party.

He now also faces the impeachment of his presidency after six opposition parties in South Korea submitted a bill of impeachment today.

Under South Korea's constitution, impeachment must be proposed by a majority in parliament and approved by two-thirds of all lawmakers.

The proposal will then go to the Constitutional Court, one of South Korea's highest courts, along with the Supreme Court. According to the Constitution, at least six judges must agree to proceed with impeachment.

Under the South Korean Constitution, the president will be suspended from performing his duties during the process until the impeachment proceedings are completed.

Otherwise, the South Korean president behaved like a president under siege for a long time, observers say. In a speech on Tuesday night, he recounted attempts by the political opposition to undermine his government, before saying he was declaring martial law to "as he put it, destroy the anti-state forces that are wreaking havoc".

He actually tried to save his political fate by imposing martial law.

Ion was elected to office in May 2022 as a hardline conservative, but has been without full political power as president since April when the opposition won the country's general election.

His government has since been unable to pass the laws it wanted and has been reduced to vetoing laws passed by the liberal opposition.

He has also faced a drop in his approval rating, hovering around a low of 17 percent, as he has been embroiled in several corruption scandals, including his wife's alleged stock market manipulation.

Last month he was forced to apologize on national television, saying he was setting up an office to oversee the first lady's duties, but ruled out a wider investigation, which opposition parties had called for.

Then this week the opposition proposed cuts to the government's big budget bill – which cannot be vetoed.

At the same time, the opposition also launched impeachment proceedings against members of the government and several top prosecutors, including the head of the government's audit agency, for failing to investigate his wife's stock market activity.

His attempt to impose a state of emergency on the country was probably from there, when the civil authorities were deemed unable to function.

South Korea last declared a state of emergency in 1979, when the country's longtime military dictator Park Chung-hee was killed in a coup.

No such measure has been introduced in the country since it became a parliamentary democracy in 1987.

Under South Korean law, the government must lift martial law if a majority in parliament asks for it in a vote. The same law prohibits the military command from arresting MPs. It is unclear what is happening now and what the consequences will be for Ion.

For now, the impeachment of Ion as president has been announced, that is, two-thirds of the deputies in the 300-member National Assembly must vote for impeachment - at least 201 votes.

Once impeachment is approved, a trial is held before the Constitutional Court – the nine-member council that oversees government departments in South Korea. If six members of the court vote to support the impeachment, the president is removed from office.

If that happens, it wouldn't be the first time a South Korean president has been impeached. Eight years ago, i.e. in 2016, the then president was dismissed after she was accused of helping a friend in extortion. In 2004, the second president was removed and suspended for two months. The Constitutional Court later reinstated him.

Whatever the fate of current President Yoon, many agree that his reckless action yesterday could be more damaging to South Korea's reputation as a democracy than even the damage done by the January 6 riots in the United States.

South Korea, which bills itself as a progressive, modern democracy that has come a long way from the days of its dictatorship, now faces its biggest challenge in restoring a democratic society in decades.