SOUTH KOREA’s Constitutional Court removed impeached President Park Geun-hye from office in a unanimous ruling on Friday over a corruption scandal that has plunged the country into political turmoil and worsened an already-serious national divide.

The decision capped a stunning fall for the country’s first female leader, who rode a wave of lingering conservative nostalgia for her late dictator father to victory in 2012, only to see her presidency crumble as millions of furious protesters filled the nation’s streets.

Two people died during protests that followed the ruling. Police and hospital officials said about 30 protesters and police officers were injured in the violent clashes near the court, which prompted Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, the country’s acting head of state, to plead for peace and urge Park’s angry supporters to move on.

media_camera Supporters of President Park Geun-hye react emotionally as the Constitutional Court handed down its ruling. Picture: Jean Chung.

The ruling allows possible criminal proceedings against the 65-year-old Park — prosecutors have already named her a criminal suspect — and makes her South Korea’s first democratically elected leader to be removed from office since democracy replaced dictatorship in the late 1980s.

It also deepens South Korea’s political and security uncertainty as the country faces existential threats from North Korea, reported economic retaliation from a China furious about Seoul’s co-operation with the U.S. on an antimissile system, and questions in Seoul about the new Trump administration’s commitment to the countries’ security alliance.

Park’s “acts of violating the constitution and law are a betrayal of the public trust,” acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi said. “The benefits of protecting the constitution that can be earned by dismissing the defendant are overwhelmingly big. Hereupon, in a unanimous decision by the court panel, we issue a verdict: We dismiss the defendant, President Park Geun-hye.”

media_camera Acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi arrived with curlers in her hair at the Constitutional Court in Seoul for the historic unanimous ruling. Picture: Ju-sung/Yonhap.

Lee accused Park of colluding with longtime confidante Choi Soon-soil to extort tens of millions of dollars from businesses and letting Choi, a private citizen, meddle in state affairs and receive and look at documents with state secrets. Those allegations were previously made by prosecutors, but Park has refused to undergo any questioning, citing a law that gives a sitting leader immunity from prosecution.

It is not clear when prosecutors will try to interview her.

Park won’t vacate the presidential Blue House on Friday as her aides are preparing for her return to her private home in southern Seoul, according to the Blue House. Park has not made a public statement on her removal.

Park’s lawyer, Seo Seok-gu, who had previously compared Park’s impeachment to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, called the verdict a “tragic decision” made under popular pressure and questioned the fairness of what he called a “kangaroo court.” South Korea must now hold an election within two months to choose Park’s successor. Liberal Moon Jae-in, who lost to Park in the 2012 election, currently enjoys a comfortable lead in opinion surveys.

media_camera Anti-government activists hold placards reading “Impeach the President Park Geun-Hye!” outside the Constitutional Court in Seoul. Picture: Jung Yeon-Je.

Pre-verdict surveys showed that 70 to 80 per cent of South Koreans wanted the court to approve Park’s impeachment. But there have been worries that Park’s ouster would further polarise the country and cause violence. Sensing history, thousands of people — both pro-Park supporters, many of them dressed in army-style fatigues and wearing red berets, and those who wanted Park gone — gathered around the Constitutional Court building and a huge public square in downtown Seoul.

A big television screen was set up near the court so people could watch the verdict live. Hundreds of police were on hand, wearing helmets with visors and black, hard-plastic breastplates and shin guards. The streets near the court were lined with police buses and barricades.

media_camera The protests were some of the largest the nation has ever seen. Picture: Kim Min-Hee.

Some of Park’s supporters reacted with anger after the ruling, shouting and hitting police officers and reporters with plastic flag poles and steel ladders, and climbing on police buses. Anti-Park protesters celebrated by marching in the streets near the presidential Blue House, carrying flags, signs and an effigy of Park dressed in prison clothes and tied up with rope.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said two people died while protesting Park’s removal. An official from the Seoul National University Hospital said that a man in his 70s, believed to be a Park supporter, died from head wounds after falling from the top of a police bus.

An official from the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul said another man brought from the pro-Park rally died shortly after receiving CPR at the hospital. The hospital official couldn’t immediately confirm the cause of death. In a televised speech, Hwang said “there would be people who feel they cannot understand or accept (the court ruling), but it’s now time to move on and end all conflict and standoff.” Park’s parliamentary impeachment in December came after weeks of Saturday rallies that drew millions who wanted her resignation.

Originally published as Protests turn deadly in South Korea