The stage for South Korea's 2024 political crisis was set in April, when legislative elections delivered a stunning blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol. The opposition, a broad coalition led by the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), secured a commanding supermajority in the National Assembly. This victory handed them immense power to block the president's agenda, override his vetoes, and unilaterally pass legislation.

For President Yoon, the result was a political nightmare. Elected by a razor-thin margin in 2022, he now faced a hostile legislature for the remainder of his term. This created a state of divided government where legislative and executive functions were fundamentally at odds, leading to immediate and intractable gridlock. The opposition's mandate was clear: to act as a powerful check on the presidency.

The first major battleground was the 2025 national budget. Wielding their newfound authority, the DPK-controlled assembly took a red pen to the president's proposal. They slashed roughly ₩4 trillion (about $3 billion) from the executive's spending plan, targeting what they deemed to be Yoon's pet projects and non-essential expenditures.

This move was more than just a fiscal disagreement; it was a direct challenge to the president's ability to govern. The cuts hampered key administrative priorities and sent a clear message that the opposition, not the president, held the power of the purse. President Yoon and his allies decried this as a "legislative dictatorship," arguing that the opposition was hamstringing the government for political gain and undermining the will of the executive branch.

The constant friction paralyzed policymaking. The assembly became a fortress of opposition, while the presidential office felt increasingly besieged. This standoff cemented the narrative of a rogue legislature determined to subvert a democratically elected president, a theme Yoon would return to repeatedly.

Beyond budgetary disputes, the opposition deployed another powerful tool to disrupt Yoon's administration: impeachment. From the moment Yoon took office, his cabinet members and key appointees faced a relentless wave of impeachment motions. By late 2024, over 22 such motions had been filed, targeting ministers of defense, interior, and justice, as well as senior prosecutors with ties to the president.

While most of these impeachment efforts did not ultimately succeed in removing the officials, their purpose was clear. Each motion triggered lengthy political and judicial processes, effectively paralyzing the targeted ministry for weeks or months. It was a strategy of attrition, designed to bog down the government, create an image of perpetual scandal, and weaken the president by isolating him from his key staff.

The scandals surrounding First Lady Kim Keon-hee provided the opposition with its most potent ammunition. Allegations against her included involvement in stock price manipulation before her husband's presidency and, more visibly, the "Dior bag scandal," where she was filmed accepting a luxury handbag from a pastor. The DPK aggressively pushed for special investigative counsels to probe the First Lady. President Yoon used his veto power to block these bills, but his actions were politically damaging. They painted him as a leader protecting his family from accountability, further inflaming public opinion and deepening his political isolation.

His repeated vetoes only reinforced the opposition's narrative that he was above the law. In response, Yoon escalated his rhetoric, framing the opposition's actions not as legitimate political oversight but as the work of "anti-state forces" colluding with North Korea to destabilize his government. This hardened the lines of division, leaving no room for compromise and pushing the political system toward its breaking point.

By the end of 2024, the South Korean political landscape was a zero-sum game of perpetual conflict, setting the stage for an unprecedented crisis.