South Korea’s opposition filed an impeachment motion on Thursday against acting President Han Duck-soo after he refused to appoint Constitutional Court judges necessary to complete the impeachment process of his predecessor, President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon, currently suspended, declared martial law on December 3, triggering a political crisis.
The National Assembly stripped Yoon of his duties on December 14, but a ruling by the Constitutional Court is required to finalize his removal from office.
The issue lies in Han’s refusal to approve the appointment of three judges to fill vacant seats on the nine-member Constitutional Court, effectively stalling the impeachment process.
The opposition Democratic Party has now taken steps to impeach Han for blocking the appointments.
“We have filed the motion… and will report it to the plenary session today,” said MP Park Sung-joon, adding that the motion would be put to a vote on Friday.
Park Chan-dae, the Democratic Party’s floor leader, argued that Han’s refusal to approve the appointments shows that he “does not have the will or qualification to uphold the Constitution.”
If the Constitutional Court proceeds with the impeachment without the three new judges, all six remaining judges would need to agree unanimously to remove Yoon from office.
A single dissenting vote would reinstate Yoon.
Han has defended his position, stating that he would approve the judges only if a compromise is reached between his ruling People Power Party and the opposition.
He emphasized that the Constitution and laws dictate that significant presidential powers, such as the appointment of Constitutional Court judges, should be exercised only after consensus between the ruling and opposition parties, which represent the people.
“If there is no agreement between the National Assembly parties, the constitutional institutions cannot be appointed,” Han, a 75-year-old career bureaucrat, stated.
If the opposition succeeds in passing the impeachment motion against Han on Friday, it would mark the first time in South Korea’s democratic history that an acting president has been impeached.
Should the motion pass, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok would step in as acting president.
