SEOUL, South Korea – Prime Minister and acting President Han Duck-soo returned to work Monday after the nation’s high court overruled his impeachment. But the eight judges of South Korea’s Constitutional Court are still deliberating the fate of Mr. Han’s boss, impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Mr. Han, 75, was reportedly back in his office within minutes of the decision.
He thanked the court for its “wise decision,” and began issuing orders to contain rural wildfires raging in the country’s southeast since the weekend. Four persons have died, and troops have been deployed.
Even so, no date for a far weightier legal judgment — a decision on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol — has been issued by the Constitutional Court. Mr. Han took over the reins of national power after Mr. Yoon was impeached following his shock declaration of martial law last December, but Mr. Han was promptly impeached himself.
His return renders invalid an impeachment motion prepared by the opposition-controlled National Assembly last Friday to impeach his successor, Finance Minister and acting President Choi Sang-mook.
The opposition, which controls the National Assembly, was incensed by the refusal of both Mr. Han, and subsequently Mr. Choi, to appoint a full bench to the Constitutional Court, which is deliberating Mr. Yoon’s case with eight justices, rather than its full complement of nine.
Both acting presidents had demanded the National Assembly reach a consensus on appointees to the court, which did not happen.
If Mr. Han had not been returned to office, and if the opposition had pushed through its motion against Mr. Choi, he would have been the third national leader booted from office since last December.
Lawfare on all fronts
Mr. Han on Monday called for “rationality and common sense” — and indeed, no K-pop drama could have credibly fictionalized the fiercely polarized constitutional lawfare roiling Korean politics.
The polity is locked in a struggle between the National Assembly, controlled by the left-wing Democratic Party of Korea, and the executive branch, held by the right-wing People Power Party.
The weapons wielded are vetoes by the latter, and impeachments by the former.
The most sensational battle so far has been the impeachment of Mr. Yoon following his martial law decree on Dec 3.
Opponents say that botched maneuver was an uncalled-for and illegal abuse of power that recalled the authoritarian regimes that ruled Korea prior to democratization in 1987. Supporters claim he was acting to defend the national interest against a range of anti-state forces, from pro-Chinese and North Korean agents to electoral manipulators.
Two separate pundits warned The Washington Times that the Constitutional Court’s leniency toward Mr. Han is not necessarily a predictor in Mr. Yoon’s case. However, its decisions on impeachments have, so far, swung entirely in favor of the executive branch.
Mr. Han is the eighth of 29 government officials impeached by the legislature to be returned to office by the court.
Of the court’s eight judges, only one called for Mr. Han’s impeachment to be upheld. Five ruled to overturn it, while two dismissed the impeachment motion — which had packaged alleged issues from Mr. Han’s role both as prime minister and as acting president — entirely.
The next installment in Korea’s legal-constitutional drama airs Wednesday, when the Seoul High Court will pass judgment on main opposition leader and Democratic Party of Korea head, Lee Jae-myung. Mr. Lee, who has for years proven to be legally bulletproof, is facing charges of perjury related to long-ago graft allegations from his career as a local politician.
A hotly debated narrative, in coffee shops and online, is Mr. Lee’s possible removal from politics if the court rules against him. That means he could not run in the presidential election that must take within 60 days if Mr. Yoon’s impeachment is upheld.
However, even if the court rules against Mr. Lee, he can still appeal to the Supreme Court, which would keep him in the political running for months to come.
The Constitutional Court has been deliberating Mr. Yoon’s case for 27 days, far longer than in the country’s two prior presidential impeachment cases, which took 11 and 14 days.
Some predict that the court will make a decision — or at least release the date of its decision — by the end of this week.
Though deliberations continue to drag, the court’s unofficial deadline is April 18, given that two of its eight judges’ terms on the bench expire on that date.
