14K Cops Will Descend on Seoul on Friday

More than a tenth of South Korea's entire police force will be mobilized in Seoul on Friday morning as the country's Constitutional Court prepares to decide Yoon Suk Yeol's fate. The court says it will rule on the validity of Yoon's impeachment at 11am local time, which is 10pm Thursday ET. If at least six of the eight justices decide the impeachment is valid, an election for a new president will be held within 60 days, Bloomberg reports. If the ruling goes the other way, Yoon will be immediately reinstated as president.

• Background: Yoon was impeached by South Korea's Parliament in December over a martial law decree that he backed down from within hours after lawmakers voted it down. The court will be looking at Yoon's motivation for sending troops and police officers to Parliament after the decree, the AP reports. Top military and police officers have said Yoon watned to block the vote, though he claims he only wanted to restore order.

• Tight security: More than 14,000 police officers will be mobilized across Seoul, reports Reuters. The street in front of the court will be closed to pedestrians and cars, and equipment designed to disable drones is in place. Authorities want to prevent a repeat of the violence seen in January, when Yoon supporters stormed a Seoul courthouse and more than a dozen police officers were injured. When former president Park Geun-hye's impeachment was finalized in 2017, four of her supporters were killed in protests.
• A tense atmosphere: There have been huge, sometimes violent protests for and against Yoon in recent weeks, and police say they're braced for a "worst-case scenario" on Friday, the Guardian reports. Yoon supporter Jeon Kwang-hoon, a far-right pastor, has told his followers that if the court upholds the impeachment, "we will activate the people's right to resist and sweep them away with one sword."
• A divided nation: Analysts say the protests, and the deep divisions in South Korean society, will continue whichever way the ruling goes, making it harder for the country to deal with challenges, including new American tariffs. "Whether Yoon's impeachment is upheld or overturned at the Constitutional Court, it will be difficult to make both sides accept its ruling," Hong Sung Gul, a public administration professor at Seoul's Kookmin University, tells the AP. "There is a high possibility that bigger chaos will follow."
• Yoon's criminal case: If Yoon returns to the presidency, an upcoming criminal trial over the martial law decree "will still loom large over the remainder of his days in office," Bloomberg notes. He has been charged with directing a rebellion and could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.

(More South Korea stories.)