S. Korea’s Constitutional Court dismisses impeachment of PM Han

FILE: PM Han Duck-soo in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo By 제주특별자치도청/Wikimedia Commons, KOGL Type 1)

By Yonhap, Philippine News Agency

SEOUL – The 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.”