South Korea’s opposition announced Thursday it filed an impeachment motion against acting President Han Duck-soo, deepening a dispute over the composition of the Constitutional Court, which will decide whether to remove his predecessor from office.ooo
South Korea experienced a political crisis when President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is temporarily suspended, imposed martial law on December 3.
Yoon was removed from his duties by parliament on December 14 following the dramatic declaration, but a constitutional court verdict upholding legislators’ decision is required to complete the impeachment process.
The court is currently short of three judges. While it can proceed with only six members on the bench, a single dissenting vote would reinstate Yoon.
The opposition wants Han to approve three more nominees to fill the nine-member bench, something he has so far refused to do, thereby putting both sides in an impasse.
According to the opposition Democratic Party, the interim president should also be impeached.
“We have filed the motion… and will report it to the plenary session today,” MP Park Sung-joon told reporters at the National Assembly of the action against Han. We will put it to a vote tomorrow.”
Han’s refusal to formally appoint the three judges proves that he “does not have the will or qualification to uphold the constitution,” the Democratic Party’s floor leader Park Chan-dae told reporters.
Han stated that he would certify the judges’ appointments only if his ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the opposition reach a compromise on the nominees.
“The consistent principle embedded in our constitution and laws is to refrain from exercising significant exclusive presidential powers, including the appointment of constitutional institutions,” Han argued.
“A consensus between the ruling and opposition parties in the National Assembly, representing the people, must first be reached,” added the 75-year-old career bureaucrat.
If the opposition votes to impeach Han on Friday, it will be the first time in democratic South Korea that an acting president has been impeached.
In Han’s place, South Korea’s Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok would take over as acting president.
The opposition accuses Han of failing to fulfil his duties as acting president, citing his refusal to formally appoint judges and the passage of two special probe bills to investigate Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law and graft allegations involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
Earlier this week, Han rejected the opposition’s call for special measures establishing two independent investigation bodies to scrutinise the first couple, causing the Democratic Party to threaten impeachment.
Han is “intentionally avoiding the special investigation to probe those involved in the insurrection and has clearly stated his intention to reject the appointments of three Constitutional Court judges,” the motion reads.
Such actions, it adds, are “in violation of a public official’s duty to uphold the law… and serve the public.”
