Education Minister Lee Ju-ho became the fourth president of South Korea since December on Friday after a turbulent 2025 that began with protests for and against the arrest of ousted former President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The South Korean government baffled international partners in the past 24 hours after acting President Han Duck-soo resigned on Thursday to prepare for a campaign in the June 3 special election to replace Yoon. Officials announced that Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who had already been president after Han was impeached in December, would replace Han temporarily, but Choi abruptly resigned, as well, leaving Lee as the chief executive of the country.
The wave of resignations and questions from international observers made for a confusing first day in office for Lee, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported, noting that the day began with an emergency cabinet meeting that participants were initially unsure was even legal. The various resignations meant the cabinet was too small to make quorum, raising legal questions that Seoul ultimately decided had been decided in favor of a meeting by past precedent.
The current chaos began when Yoon, elected in a deeply bitter election in 2022, announced on the night of December 3 that he would abruptly impose martial law on the country in response to the left-wing Democratic Party obstructing his agenda at the National Assembly, the federal lawmaking body. Yoon accused the Democrats of working with “North Korean communist forces” and attempting to overthrow the “constitutional order.”
The martial law decree lasted mere hours as National Assembly lawmakers stormed legislative chambers to organize an emergency vote against military rule. While lawmakers can legally vote down martial law, the martial law decree also meant that political activity, including legislative votes, was not legal, so lawmakers had to elbow past rows of heavily armed soldiers to organize the vote, the latter whom did not take much action to prevent the political figures from achieving their goal.
Following the end of martial law less than 24 hours after it was implemented, Yoon apologized, but the National Assembly voted to impeach him regardless. Han Duck-soo became acting president and was immediately impeached for allegedly taking too long to expedite Yoon’s impeachment case, leaving Choi as the acting president.
While Han defeated the case for his impeachment, Yoon did not, and was removed from the presidency. South Koreans will vote for his replacement on June 3.
Han resigned on Thursday to prepare a campaign to run in that election.
“Thinking of the weight of the responsibility I carry at this grave time, after thinking long and carefully about whether such a decision is in fact right and inevitable,” he declared on Thursday, “I decided that if this is the only way, I must take it.”
The South Korean government clarified to diplomatic outposts and journalists that the resignation meant Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok would be both president and prime minister, but those “clarifications” were published before Choi himself also resigned. Education Minister Lee Ju-ho was third in line for the presidency and became acting president on Friday.
“The Foreign Ministry had to retract and replace an official diplomatic note that was sent to embassies in Seoul informing them of a new acting leadership under Choi Sang-mok,” JoongAng reported on Friday. “The note was sent in the afternoon following the resignation of then-acting President Han Duck-soo, only to be collected and rewritten after Choi himself stepped down before his anticipated impeachment by the liberal Democratic Party.”
The situation means that South Korea has had four men serve as president in the past five months, a head-spinning transfer of power that recalls similar situations during various impeachments in Latin America. Peru, for example, experienced the governance of six presidents in six years, from 2016 to 2022, after multiple presidents were arrested on corruption charges.
JoongAng described South Korean diplomats as enduring “embarrassment” over the situation.
“Some staff at our overseas missions have been approached by officials in their host countries asking for explanations, saying that South Korea’s situation is fascinating but hard to follow,” an anonymous “diplomatic source” lamented.
The South China Morning Post found South Koreans “frustrated” and disenchanted with the current state of their national politics.
“Seriously? Even the education minister is acting president now? That was my first thought when I saw the news,” one South Korean interviewed by the newspaper, identified as 26-year-old Song Hyun-woo, said.
Choi Jin-young, identified as a retiree, sighed, “No matter how much I pay attention to politics, nothing changes, so I’ve stopped caring.”
Confusion over the state of the government reportedly continued on Friday as Lee attempted to organize a cabinet meeting that no one in his government appeared sure was legal.
“Confusion emerged over the Cabinet meeting, originally scheduled for 10:30 a.m., due a lack of quorum,” JoongAng detailed. “The Constitution stipulates that the Cabinet must consist of at least 15 and no more than 30 ministers. Following the resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok the previous day, only 14 ministers with voting rights remained.”
The meeting ultimately took place anyway.
While the Democratic Party has benefitted from the fall in popularity of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP), their future is also unclear as their leader and top presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung, is facing a host of legal problems that may disqualify him from the ballot. The South Korean Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Lee was guilty of “false statements” during the 2022 election, in which he ran against Yoon, and is facing multiple cases accusing him of corruption during his time as governor of Gyeonggi province.
