S. Korea's constitutional court upholds President Yoon's impeachment

South Korea's constitutional court upheld a motion by the National Assembly to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law imposition, live TV broadcast showed Friday.

Moon Hyung-bae, acting chief of the court, read a ruling on Yoon's impeachment, saying it was a unanimous decision of eight justices.

By law, the ruling came into force immediately after the reading and a snap presidential election is required to be held within 60 days.

The conservative leader officially lost all presidential power, becoming the country's second sitting president to be forcibly removed from power following former conservative President Park Geun-hye's ouster through impeachment in 2017.

Yoon became the third president to be impeached by the National Assembly in the country's constitutional history. Late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun was reinstated in presidency after impeachment by the National Assembly in 2004.

Yoon declared an emergency martial law on the night of Dec 3 last year, but it was revoked by the opposition-led National Assembly hours later.

Since the passage of Yoon's impeachment motion on Dec 14 last year, a total of 11 hearings had been held in the constitutional court until Feb 25.

It took 111 days before the constitutional court's final verdict, compared to 92 days for Park's impeachment and 64 days for Roh's impeachment.

S. Korea's constitutional court upholds President Yoon's impeachment

S. Korea's constitutional court upholds President Yoon's impeachment

S. Korea's constitutional court upholds President Yoon's impeachment

S. Korea's constitutional court upholds President Yoon's impeachment

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting