South Koreaʼs Constitutional Court rejects impeachment of prime minister

The Constitutional Court (CC) of South Korea on March 24 rejected the impeachment of the countryʼs Prime Minister Han Dak Soo. He was reinstated as acting president.

This is reported by the South Korean newspaper The Korea Herald.

The courtʼs decision is final and cannot be appealed. The verdict was not unanimous: seven justices voted to overturn the impeachment, and only one supported it.

According to Yonhap news agency, five judges found the impeachment motion to be justified, but stressed that the grounds for impeachment were insufficient. In their opinion, Han Deok Soo did not violate the constitution or the law. Two more judges believe that the impeachment motion was invalid from the beginning, since it was not supported by two-thirds of the deputies in parliament.

Han Dak Soo was impeached on December 27 last year. At that time, the countryʼs Assembly accused the politician of being an accomplice in the imposition of martial law by President Yun Seok Yeol on December 3.

The media added that Han Dak Soo also recommended that the president veto the special prosecutorʼs investigation into first lady Kim Kong Hee. In addition, Han Dak Soo refused to appoint three judges to the Constitutional Court.

What preceded

South Korean President Yun Seok Yeol declared martial law in the country on the night of December 3-4, 2024, to “protect the constitutional order” — the first time since the 1980s. The reason was that the opposition Democratic Party of South Korea, which has a majority in parliament, rejected the government’s budget proposal and decided to impeach the state auditor and the attorney general.

In total, martial law lasted about six hours, but it caused a sharp internal crisis — now the president is being called to resign. On December 8, he was informed of suspicion of treason and abuse of power and banned from traveling abroad.

On December 14, 2024, the South Korean parliament voted to impeach President Yoon Seok Yeol. Finance Minister Choi Sang Mok temporarily served as acting president.

There was an attempt to detain the president on January 3, 2025, but his security prevented this. On January 15, he was finally detained on a second attempt.

On March 8, it was reported that Yoon Seok Yeol had been released from prison, but he would still have to stand trial.

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