Yoon Suk-yeol to address South Korea ahead of impeachment vote

South Korea’s embattled President Yoon Suk-yeol was set to address the nation on Saturday ahead of an impeachment vote in parliament and major protests calling for his departure, his office said.

Yoon stunned the nation and the international community on Tuesday night by imposing martial law for the first time since 1980 and deploying troops and helicopters to parliament.

But lawmakers managed to vote down the decree, forcing Yoon to rescind the order in the early hours of Wednesday in a night of extraordinary drama in a nation assumed to be a stable democracy.

Yoon has gone to ground since and his scheduled address to the nation at 10:00am (local time) announced by his office will be the first time he has spoken in public.

It comes ahead of a vote in parliament expected in the early evening on his impeachment, which was expected to be approved after the head of Yoon’s ruling party broke with the president.

Police expect tens of thousands of people to attend anti-Yoon rallies on Saturday ahead of the impeachment vote, which needs a two-thirds majority.