SEOUL: South Korean Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday, reinstating him as acting president in the ongoing turmoil over suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Han’s impeachment was dismissed in a 5-1 vote by the court’s eight justices. Two justices voted to reject the impeachment motion entirely.
The ruling came three months after the National Assembly impeached the prime minister and then acting president over his alleged role in Yoon’s Dec 3 declaration of martial law, among other reasons.
According to Yonhap, four of the five justices who voted to dismiss Han’s impeachment acknowledged there were violations of the Constitution and the law in his decision to defer the appointment of additional justices to the court, but noted it did not justify his removal from office.
As the only justice to uphold the impeachment, however, Justice Chung Kye-sun said the violations were “serious” enough to warrant his dismissal.
She also pointed to “serious” violations of relevant laws in Han’s refusal to promptly seek candidate recommendations for a permanent special counsel to investigate insurrection charges against Yoon.
The six justices who voted to either dismiss or uphold the impeachment said there was no evidence to back the National Assembly’s accusations that Han took proactive action to give legitimacy to Yoon’s martial law bid, such as by convening a Cabinet meeting ahead of its declaration.
Meanwhile, all but two justices sided with the National Assembly in ruling that the quorum to impeach Han was a minimum 151 out of 300 lawmakers, which is applied to a prime minister, not 200, as applied to a president.
The two justices who differed said the quorum for a president should have been applied, given that Han was performing the president’s role in the wake of Yoon’s impeachment less than two weeks earlier, and voted to reject the impeachment motion entirely.
The National Assembly’s impeachment motion also listed charges that Han attempted to form a joint governance system with then ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon and refused to promulgate two special counsel bills targeting Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee. The court dismissed those accusations.
The prime minister arrived at his office minutes after the verdict was announced.
“I thank the Constitutional Court for its wise decision,“ he told reporters. “I will start by dealing with urgent issues first.”
Monday’s ruling was closely watched as a test of the court’s views on charges raised against Yoon in his impeachment trial.
The court has yet to announce the date of its ruling on Yoon’s case, though many observers anticipate it could come later in the week.
