The impeachment of South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, by the country’s Parliament last weekend marked an important step in the East Asian nation’s efforts towards restoring stability after more than a week of deep political uncertainty following Mr Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law. The president has been suspended from office and the South Korean prime minister, Han Duck-soo, has taken over as interim leader. The country’s Constitutional Court will now decide whether Mr Yoon should be removed from office. This process can take a few months: the court ordered the removal of the impeached then-president, Park Geun-hye, in 2017 after three months of deliberation. If the court does decide that Mr Yoon must go, fresh elections have to be held within two months. Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Opposition Liberal Democratic Party, is widely seen as the frontrunner to replace Mr Yoon if the president is forced out of office. Yet, even as these constitutional processes proceed, a larger tussle for the future of South Korea is underway, and other democracies would do well to pay heed.

After initial reluctance to abandon Mr Yoon, the president’s party has dissociated itself from him. Han Dong-hoon, the leader of the People Power Party, has, in fact, quit from that post. Meanwhile, the interim government that has replaced Mr Yoon has been proactive in trying to calm market sentiments about Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which was already struggling before the recent political crisis. Those efforts appear to be bearing fruit, with the stock market stable in a country that is home to some of the world’s biggest auto and electronics brands. However, Mr Yoon has doubled down on his defence of the imposed martial law, which lasted only a few hours before parliamentarians overruled it in an emergency vote. He intends to defend his actions in the Constitutional Court. Mr Yoon has, worryingly, tried to paint the Opposition, which enjoys a majority in Parliament, as being soft on North Korea and China, in a bid to portray himself as a patriot trying to save the nation from foreign powers and their collaborators. However, he has not presented any evidence to back his claims. What South Korea decides over the next few weeks could set a precedent for future leaders in the country and counterparts around the world who might look to consolidate power under the garb of national security. A win for South Korean democracy would be a win for global democracy.