South Korea Removes Its Impeached President and Regains Direction

The country’s Constitutional Court formally ended the presidency of Yoon Suk Yeol for declaring martial law, ending months of turmoil. But the country remains deeply divided.

South Korea’s top court ended months of political turmoil when it unanimously decided to remove the impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, clearing the way for the country to elect a new leader.

But the political crisis that Mr. Yoon triggered with his misjudged declaration of martial law in December — and his ensuing impeachment by the National Assembly — exposed a deep fissure in South Korea’s polarized politics that may prove harder to heal. For months, protesters for and against Mr. Yoon have taken over the streets in Seoul.

The country must continue without an elected leader before the elections take place, as it deals with external challenges that include the deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia and an upheaval in global trade ignited by President Donald J. Trump’s new tariffs.

But after months of political limbo, the ruling by the Constitutional Court on Friday finally gave South Korea a sense of direction that it has desperately needed.

Mr. Yoon, who had defiantly held onto his job despite his impeachment, is a former president now. In the coming days, he must vacate his hilltop presidential residence in central Seoul, and the government will schedule a national election because his successor must be chosen within 60 days. On Friday, officials lowered a presidential emblem in front of a building from where Mr. Yoon used to run the government. Military units began removing his portraits.

“This is a victory for South Korean democracy,” said Sung Deuk Hahm, dean of the Graduate School of Political Studies at Kyonggi University, remembering how South Koreans had sacrificed their lives to oppose military rule in the past. “It has taken time, but this time, the rule of law eventually prevailed without blood-shedding or serious violence.”