South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Monday dismissed the impeachment of interim Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who took over after President Yoon Suk-yeol was impeached.
The twisty political drama in Seoul began in early December, when President Yoon stunned the world by imposing a state of “emergency martial law” to combat “subversive, anti-state elements” among the political opposition.
Yoon’s order was overturned by the legislature within a matter of hours and he was impeached less than two weeks later. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was tapped as interim president while the lengthy legal process for removing Yoon from office played out.
Han was then impeached on December 27, as opposition lawmakers accused him of stonewalling the process of removing Yoon from office. He was succeeded as interim president by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who has held the position ever since.
On Monday, the Constitutional Court ruled 5-1 that Han’s actions did not rise to the level of impeachment.
The court faulted Han for being slow to appoint Constitutional Court justices to handle Yoon’s trial, but disagreed with the opposition legislators over removing him from office. Choi made two of the required three appointments to the Constitutional Court after Han was forced out, but one seat on the court remains vacant.
The court also dismissed opposition charges that Han colluded with Yoon to impose martial law, and for good measure it threw out the vote to impeach Han as insufficient.
Han was impeached under rules that state 151 of 300 lawmakers are needed to impeach the prime minister but, since he was acting president at the time, the court said a higher threshold of 200 votes should have been needed to remove him.
People look at a 24-hour Yonhap news TV broadcast at Seoul Railway Station showing a news broadcast with shows acting South Korean President and PM Han Duck-soo speaking to reporters after arriving at the government complex in Seoul. ( Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty)
Han was restored to the office of acting president by the Constitutional Court’s ruling – he physically walked into the presidential office within minutes of the ruling coming down – and promised to hit the ground running on the major issues facing South Korea.
“I will take the lead in preparing for and responding to global changes through partnership between the private and public sectors. I will do my best to ensure that South Korea continues to develop in this era of great geopolitical transformation,” Han said.
“I believe that there is no longer left or right. What matters most is how the country moves forward,” he said, calling for national unity as Yoon’s impeachment drama plays out.
The office of the South Korean presidency welcomed Han’s return and said the court ruling in his favor reflected poorly on the judgment of leftist opposition lawmakers, who abused their authority to force Han out of office.
The leader of South Korea’s major opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, is himself hanging by a legal thread. He was convicted in November of violating election laws and making false statements to defend himself against allegations of corruption. A ruling on Lee’s appeal against that conviction is due on Wednesday. If the court rules against him, he could be stripped of his seat in the legislature and banned from running for the presidency in the next election.
The next election could be coming soon because if the Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment, he will be completely removed from office, and an election for his successor must be held within 60 days.
South Korean analysts and commentators found few clues to Yoon’s fate in the ruling about Han. The court conspicuously refused to comment on Monday about the legality of Yoon’s martial law declaration.
One seat on the Constitutional Court remains open and the opposition is furious that neither Han nor Choi seems eager to fill it. In fact, an impeachment motion against Choi was already gathering signatures when the court struck down Han’s impeachment. The open seat is considered important because it might be harder for the court to uphold Yoon’s impeachment with a missing justice.
“We have no choice but to respect the decision of the Constitutional Court. But I don’t think it is a decision that the South Korean people will understand. The acting president clearly neglected his duties that the Constitution entrusted upon him by not appointing the rest of the justices of the Constitutional Court,” Lee grumbled after the court ruled on Monday.
“We welcome the Constitutional Court’s decision, which once again confirms the Democratic Party’s impeachment campaign is nothing more than a malicious political offensive,” countered Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader for the governing People Power Party (PPP).
In truth, the public seems to be losing its enthusiasm for removing Yoon from office, although a majority still support his impeachment. Yoon supporters have held frequent rallies in his name, and those rallies have been growing steadily larger.
The Constitutional Court has yet to set a date for ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. Many observers expected a ruling in mid-March, but that date came and went. Under South Korean law, the court must rule within 180 days of the date Yoon was impeached, December 14th.
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